By Valerie Yates, RDH
Deciding on a career path is no small feat. It can be a very confusing and exciting time in your life. Dental hygiene is a rewarding and in-demand career and may be the right fit for you. Here are five tips for becoming a dental hygienist.
Shadow in a dental practice
To ensure that dental hygiene is a good fit for you, spend some time shadowing a few different offices. We often form opinions on our personal experience at the dentist, but there is much more to dentistry. Dental hygienists spend much of their day assessing the conditions and needs of each patient they see. Some of these needs are quite extensive and will require multiple appointments with you.
Spend some time shadowing dentists as well. Being a part of a dental team sometimes will require you to go outside of your regular daily routines. Never assume that because you are licensed in dental hygiene, you will not have to work with procedures you didn’t learn in school. You may be required to assist a dentist during a restorative procedure. Some of these procedures can be intense as far as patient anxiety, surgery, and blood. Ensuring you can handle these types of procedures will help you be a great asset to a dental team.
Education
Research and apply to an accredited dental hygiene program. Accreditation is crucial for obtaining a license to practice as a dental hygienist. Think about what kind of program you want to attend. While all programs require prerequisites to be considered, some programs offer associate degrees, and others offer bachelor’s degrees. While both degrees are acceptable for becoming a dental hygienist, there are benefits to getting a bachelor’s degree.
Dental hygiene can be an enriching and fulfilling career, but it can be very taxing on the body. At some point, you may decide to leave the clinical side to pursue other dental careers. These types of careers, such as teaching, dental sales, or consulting, often require a bachelor’s degree, even with years of experience. A bachelor’s degree can open more doors to you in the long run.
It is important to note that if you choose to attend a program that offers an associate’s degree, you can still choose to get your bachelor’s degree after earning your associate’s degree. Many colleges offer online degrees, so you can work and get your degree at the same time.
Once you become a dental hygienist, you will be required to have continuing education hours to renew your dental hygiene license. These hours and requirements for education vary depending on your state. Dentistry is constantly changing, so keeping up with the latest technology and scientific advancements is essential for providing your patients excellent care.
Take care of yourself
Dental hygienists are at risk for neck, back, and hand issues. While in school, you will learn ergonomics. Pay attention to the way you posture yourself to help ensure a long career. There will be patients with medical conditions that will require you to adjust yourself out of the ergonomically beneficial posture. Still, for the majority of patients, you must use the most ergonomically safe position for yourself. It can be intimidating when you start to ask your patients to adjust their position for your benefit, but it is crucial for your long-term health and career.
Also, make sure you have a self-care routine and stick to it. Dental hygiene is a physically and mentally demanding career. Although our job is to take care of others, it is vital to make sure you are at your best. Taking time for yourself to recharge is crucial for you to be able to take care of others.
Check out some ergonomic and self-care tips from this podcast episode.
Be sociable
Dental hygiene requires you to interact with many people every day. Between team members, patients, and patient’s family members, it would not be uncommon to interact with more than 20 people in one day. Each person you meet will have a different personality and different needs that you will have to treat with respect and great care. It’s important to be able to connect with them on both a personal and professional level so you can understand what they are looking for with their treatment. While not impossible for introverted people, it may take a toll on them if they do not practice an adequate self-care routine.
Don’t take it personally
Getting out of dental school is an exciting time, and you are ready to change the world one tooth at a time! While you may know what is best for your patient, they may not choose the path to health and wellness. This can be very defeating as a provider.
In your career as a dental hygienist, you will see hundreds, if not thousands, of patients. You cannot be everyone’s cup of tea. As a dental hygienist, you will meet people with all kinds of personalities and expectations of you as their provider. It is virtually impossible to be able to please every single one of those people. There will be some patients who request not to see you, and you will often never know why. They may prefer a co-hygienist, and this can be a blow to the ego. It’s important not to let it get you down, as this is a normal part of being human.
This also applies to your working environment. Sometimes the dentist or another coworker may need to talk to you about something that isn’t working for them that involves you. This is not a personal attack on you. There are many cogs in the dental office wheel, and sometimes it takes some reflection and adjustment to get all the cogs going in the same direction. It is crucial to have a harmonious culture in an office for the sake of yourself and your patients. It is always essential to have the bigger picture in mind.
Following these five tips can help you have a long, successful career as a dental hygienist. Self-care, patient care, and teamwork are all essential elements to harmony in your career.
Valerie Yates has been a registered dental hygienist since 2001. She has been practicing in Hays, Kansas, since that time. Valerie enjoys learning and bringing value to her patients. She has taken a special interest in myofunctional disorders and has enjoyed bringing a new avenue of health to her patients.
Valerie has always had a love for reading and writing. While she enjoys reading a good mystery novel, she finds her writing passion in freelancing.
When Valerie has leisure time, you can find her with her husband, two daughters, and their menagerie of animals. Her nature for helping others does not stop with humans and she is sucker for four-legged friends.
Photo note: Photo courtesy of Pexels.com
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