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Jassmine Robles

Mrs. Struder

English 12

11 April 2019

Journey of a Dental Hygienist

I chose to research the dental industry, because I always knew I wanted to be in the

medical field so I could help people. At one point I wanted to be a nurse, but quickly realized I

wasn’t good with blood. I realized this when I attended the EMT program here at Colonial Forge

High School. We had many labs in which we had to fill wounds with bandages, put a splint on

broken bones, and stick objects into peoples bodies, depending on the injury. We watched many

videos containing loads of blood and things I never want to see again. This was all too extreme

for me. I quickly fell of the nurses path and became interested in the dental field. A Dental

Hygienist still comes across blood, but not as much as a Doctor, which I can handle. Dentistry is

interesting to me, because as a kid, I didn’t have the best teeth which caused me to be at the

dentist office often. I always thought my Dentists had a really big responsibility and seemed like

they really enjoyed their jobs, which is why I hope to become a Dental Hygienist.

The Dentist field is something I don’t know much about. I know to become a Dentist you

need a certain degree and license, I’m not sure which ones. While starting my research, I found

out that Dental Hygienists make almost double than what Dental Assistants make. Which is a

plus, because with my research I’ve concluded that Dental Hygienists have a more interesting

day than an assistant. I want to know more about the daily routine of a Dental Hygienist, and

what their day looks life.

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There are many things required to become a Dental Hygienist. My plan after high school

is to attend Germanna Community College, which has a Dental Hygienist Program. The program

states that it’s designed for students who plan on transferring to a four- year college or university

to complete a health-related field with a Baccalaureate degree. Graduates of the Dental Hygiene

Pathway will receive an Associate of Applied Science in Dental Hygiene from Northern Virginia

Community College. Students will be eligible for a Registered Dental Hygienist license once

they successfully complete the program and National and Regional Dental Hygiene Board

Examinations (Germana). This is the pathway I’ll go, because Germanna is a close range to

home which is a huge save of money. There is of course other pathways like attending the

Virginia Commonwealth University, which has one of the best dental programs in the state. This

University also has a program specifically focused on becoming a Dental Hygienist, however the

cost is much higher and farther away than Germanna, in Richmond. Germanna has many

locations that are all in thirty mile radius. Therefore, it’s more convenient for me to attend

Germanna Community College. To start working as a Dental Hygienist, you will need at least an

Associates Degree. From there you can study your way up to a Masters and a Baccalaureate

degree. To work for research, teaching, or clinical practice in school or public health programs, a

Masters or Baccalaureate degree is required (ADA).The need for this work has increased due to

growth and turnover in this career. It’s also expected to increase by 20% in around 7 years

(Bureau of Labor Statistics). This is due to more generations keeping their real teeth, which

means more dental services to keep them healthy. As stated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The demand for dental services will increase as the population ages. As the large

baby-boom population ages and people keep more of their original teeth than did previous

generations, the need to maintain and treat teeth will continue to drive demand for dental
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care (Bureau of Labor statistics).

You gain experience by working in labs at college, or job foreshadowing. Of course, the longer

you participate in this, the more experience you’ll have. To become a Dental Hygienist, you need

to graduate from an accredited Dental Hygiene program, take the National Board Dental Hygiene

examination, and pass a state or regional clinical licensure exam. There is 350 multiple choice

examination questions in total on the National Board Dental Hygiene examination. There is 150

questions related to patient cases, and 200 about scientific basis for Dental Hygiene practices,

provision of clinical Dental Hygiene services and community health and and research principles

(Student RDH). After you become certified and licensed, there is an opportunity to intern as a

Dental Hygienist in the cities of Warrenton and Culpeper, Virginia (Indeed). This is a great way

to gain experience and improve certain skills.

There are many things a Dental Hygienist should expect when working in their

profession. Starting off, a new employee will have a salary of $61,230. The normal pay is

$72,330, but Dental Hygienists who have worked in this profession longer will make $88,820. A

Dental Hygienist from Virginia makes approximately $80,000 annually (Bureau of Labor

Statistics). This is because they are more experienced. On a daily basis, scrubs, surgical masks,

gloves, and safety goggles all must be worn. This is to protect yourself and your patients from

harmful diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency virus and viral hepatitis (Dental Research

Journal). Goggles are usually only worn when the patient is getting surgery, this is to prevent

saliva, food, and other things found inside the mouth to jump onto your eyes (General Onefile).

For the most part, Dental Hygienists are sitting down to care for their patient. This usually takes

a while since thoroughly cleaning the teeth and then going through each tooth individually

requires work efficiency that takes time and concentration. They are also on their feet a lot, since
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they have to move from patient to patient. Some benefits include, growing employment, good

salary, and minimal schooling since you only need an associates degree. Full time Dental

Hygienists get vacations, sick leave, and retirement contributions which are possible depending

on the employer (Allied Health). Although full time workers get these benefits, part time Dental

Hygienist don’t, which half of Dental Hygienists do not work full time. Another benefit would

be knowing that dentistry evolves. There is constantly new tools and methods to doing things.

Knowing you do your best to help people and their smiles, and knowing you are prepared in

emergency situations are all benefits that Liz Garza discussed, a registered Dental Hygienist,

during our interview. Dental Hygienists don’t struggle to find a job, because they are in high

demand and usually everyone gets their teeth checked. Employment is in every state, but the

highest is in states that are close to the coast. Also, western states have the highest salary which

includes California, New mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Arizona, and also Alaska

(Bureau of Labor Statistics). A Dental Hygienist have many responsibilities to do. Some duties

for this job include removing plaque and stains from teeth, apply sealants and fluoride to protect

teeth, take X-rays when needed and develop them, report findings to the dentist and document

patient care as well as treatment plans (General Onefile).

In an article titled “Dental Voices for Mental Health,” written by Lisa Stillman, a

registered Dental Hygienist, informs how important it is for dental professionals to be aware of

mental disorders. She tells the story of her son, Jordan, who suffered from Schizophrenia. Her

family slowly started noticing changes in his behavior. He lost 40 pounds in just a few weeks

because he wasn’t eating. His behavior began to affect his health, work, and social life. Jordan

isolated himself from his friend group and changed his whole life because of this disorder.

Eventually, after 5 years of battling with Schizophrenia, Jordan took his own life. Now, Stillman
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is spreading awareness of the importance of noticing signs in someone with a mental disorder.

She shares this specifically to the dentist community because they’re the ones who notice the

most noticeable signs pertaining to their teeth. This is because mental disorders severely affects

the mouth. An example of one of those disorders would be bulimia disorder. This is when

someone binge eats and then vomits the food out to avoid weight gain. By vomiting, the stomach

acid that also comes out along with the food, will wear away the enamel that protects and covers

the teeth, which is very dangerous. In severe cases, the acid can eventually rot the teeth

(Healthline). All of this, fits into the mental struggles of a Dental Hygienist. They stress about

the lives and health of their patients. A Dentist who has a close relationship with a patient will

worry once they notice signs like these, worry about their personal life, dealing with horrible

mental disorders. In an article titled “Bulimia’s effect on teeth” published by Healthline, there is

a list of symptoms caused by purging and binging. Some include dry mouth, swollen salivary

glands, yellow teeth, and cavities. Dentists are responsible for noticing these signs which could

add on stress to their daily lives. With my interview with Liz Garza, she says uncooperative

dentists was one of the stresses in her job. There are other dentists in the office who don’t get

along with others and it causes a problem because it sometimes gets in the way of work. Giving

bad news, scheduling changes, and changes in procedures are other stressors she mentioned. An

example of changed procedure would be, if the dentists prepared for just a cavity, but it turned

into a root canal procedure because the cavity got bigger, then it causes changes in everything

because the procedure then takes longer and causes the patients to be in the waiting room longer

(Liz Garza).

As Dentists have these mental struggles, they also have physical demands. In a article

titled “Our remarkable role” by Cynthia Quint, she discusses all the responsibilities Dental
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Hygienists have for work. They must be able to occasionally crouch to operate equipment, stock

supplies, grasp to hold dental instruments, perform repetitive motions to enter computer data, and

manually debride teeth. Frequently push and pull portable equipment to the clinic or office and

use their upper body strength to lift boxes around. Dental hygienist have to reach equipment like

dental x-ray units, stand while observing demonstrations, and walk to transport supplies and

patients as needed. All of these requirements could result in back pain, neck pain, and/or muscle

fatigue (Illinois department of Employment security). In addition to this, there are many hand

disorders that target dentists. The two most common pain syndromes is De Quervain's disease

and Osteoarthritis. De Quervain’s disease is caused by repetitive motion and it swells the thumb

tendons. A few symptoms would be pain, tenderness, and swelling on the thumb side of the

wrist. The pain worsens as dentists move their thumbs. This disease affects gripping, which isn’t

good for Dentist’s because they work with tools that they must grip in order to do their job.

Osteoarthritis is the most common disease that damages joints in the hands, knees, hips, and

spine. Some symptoms include, pain and aching at the base of the thumb. This worsens with

pinch gripping. Of course, Dentists must pinch their tools and adjust their wrists at a specific

angle to do certain procedures. Because of this, Dentists are forced to retire since they can no

longer work in their profession, especially Dental Hygienist since they are the ones who work

with tools in a patient's mouth the longest and do the big procedures (Posturedontics). With my

interview with Liz Garza, she took me through the day to day basis of a Dental Hygienist. The

night before, they must prepare the trays used for procedures for the next day. This way, it is

more quicker and organized and the Dentists are prepared for the next day. The morning after,

they just follow the schedule. It gets difficult when certain procedures take longer than expected.

A Dental Hygienist works with patients of all ages. Adults typically take longer than kids
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because they have 32 teeth which takes a while when they have to scale the teeth. This is when

they check each tooth one by one to see what needs to be done and make sure they’re all healthy.

This causes there to be more steps in teenagers and adults compared to kids. Also, there is a good

portion of older adults that have dentures, so this of course makes the visit longer. Kids are quick

to clean because they only have 20 teeth. The difficult part is making them feel safe and happy.

They don’t like the taste of everything and most of them are usually scared of being at the

dentist, so the job of the dentist is to be friendly and talk them out of their fear (Liz Garza).

Balancing work schedule with family and friends was really difficult for Liz garza. She had to

work fulltime to support her family. She had 2 kids when she was first starting out and her

husband was still in school and worked at night. Liz didn’t have much time on her hands to be

with others, it was always work, but sacrifices have to be made to start of a career.

Having time at the library during class really helped to put my paper together. I don’t

have time at home to go to the public library much so I try my best to finish everything I can

during school. The internet was extremely helpful, because without it I would’ve had to ask

many questions to the Dental Hygienist I was interviewing. The interview was very valuable

because it filled all the missing gaps in my paper. I learned many things with the interview

because she gave a lot of specific details about her life and profession which helped a lot.

Overall, a Dental Hygienist has many sacrifices to make for their profession but I would say it’s

worth it in the end. A surprise about my research was that there would be uncooperative dental

coworkers. There are mostly females that work as a Dental Hygienist, so it could get a little

rough. I thought being surrounded by coworkers that didn’t get along with each other would end

as I get older but apparently not. I hope I can manage well with this surprise, especially since I

plan on staying in this profession for a while. My personal expectations about getting a job is
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high. I know if I stay determined and work hard I can make it and with all the information I have

learned from this research paper, I already know where to go which will make it easier when I

begin my path to becoming a Dental Hygienist.

Works cited

Ayatollahi, Jamshid, et al. “Occupational Hazards to Dental Staff.” Dental Research Journal,

Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2012,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3283973/.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Dental

Hygienists, on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-hygienists.htm

Dentalhealthorg. “Mental Illness and Oral Health.” Oral Health Foundation, 2017,
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www.dentalhealth.org/mental-illness-and-oral-health.

"Dental hygienist." Techniques, Nov.-Dec. 2005, p. 48+. General OneFile,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A139206505/ITOF?u=va_s_089_0424&sid=ITOF&x

id=465ee589.

“Dental hygienist education and training requirements.” American Dental Association.

https://www.ada.org/en/education-careers/careers-in-dentistry/dental-team-careers/dental-

hygienist/education-training-requirements-dental-hygienist

“Dental Hygienist- physical demands.” Illinois department of Employment security.

https://apps.il-work-

net.com/cis/clusters/OccupationDetails/100059?parentId=110800&se

ction=demands&sectionTitle=Physical%20Demands

Quint, Cynthia M. “Our Remarkable Role.” Registered Dental Hygienist, 1 Jan. 2010,

www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-30/issue-1/feature/our-remarkable-role.html.

Stillman, Lisa. “Dental Voices For Mental Health.” Registered Dental Hygienist, 1 Dec. 2012,

www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-32/volume-12/features/dental-voices-for-mental-

heAlth.html.

Valachi, Bethany. “Wrist Pain among Dental Professionals.” Posturedontics, 2009,

http://posturedontics.com/identifying-your-wrist-pain-in-dentistry/