
Most of us already know that the dental area has significantly higher salaries in comparison with almost all other medical areas of expertise. A dental hygienist salary, if we consider the average of the dental hygienist salaries in the United States of America, is somewhere around $60.000 – $63.000. High enough isn’t it?
To start off with basic information, you should know what a hygienist has to do as his or her daily tasks. These are all rather simple tasks if you are prepared well enough in the dental field. This is why certification can’t be left behind and you can’t finish any valid certification program in less than 2 years’ time. So mainly, every hygienist will do all of the below:
- Asking relative questions from the patient to get enough dental information
- Applying some dental preventive materials such as fluoride
- Medical inspection of teeth and gums
- Removing oral plaque as well as removing tooth stains
- Giving out dental hygiene instructions so that patients will know how to maintain a good dental hygiene
If you’ve read the above elements, you’ve realized that they have all been applied on you or if you’re too young, on your parents. Basically that’s what a dental hygienist has to do.
As it is of utmost importance in all medical areas to have a certification, it is also very important to be certified as a dental hygienist. Since it is all about teeth and dental hygiene, we do not recommend any online courses. Of course, online courses might be helpful in some areas of dental hygiene but still practice is needed as well because when considering teeth – a lot of occurrences of the same oral problem appear differently in some cases. You can choose to get a bachelor’s degree or if you want to go one step further, a master’s degree is also a very wise decision. Why should you care this much about certification? First of all, dental hygiene is something that can only be handled with professionalism and sensitivity. You can’t learn that without authorized dental hygienists who can show you exactly what you need to do. Secondly, the dental hygienist salary is based on certification among other important influential factors.
Mostly, in the expertise of any hygienist, it is important to communicate with the dentist, to tell him what has been applied, what has been observed and other important facts about the current patient. The good part of this is that you couldn’t really work by yourself and you will be communicating a lot along the way – thus boredom rarely occurs. Of course, one has to like such a job, because some people couldn’t stand looking into other people’s mouths, especially if there are oral hygiene problems with that patient.
Another thing that applies for the dental hygienist salary is the state of expertise. Across the United States, you will be paid differently in every state. However, these different salaries are mostly based on the costs of living in that city and/or state.
As more and more dentists need to be out there to help people, a career as a dental hygienist is highly possible and prospering. This means it’s a smart decision if you go for it!