Dental Hygienists
Administer oral hygiene care to patients. Assess patient oral hygiene problems or needs and maintain health records. Advise patients on oral health maintenance and disease prevention. May provide advanced care such as providing fluoride treatment or administering topical anesthesia.
- Median pay
- $98,100
- Doing it now
- 225,300
- By 2035
- Up 8%
- Usually needs
- Associate's degree
a year
across the country
15,000 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments.
- Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease.
- Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist.
- Feel lymph nodes under patient's chin to detect swelling or tenderness that could indicate presence of oral cancer.
- Apply fluorides or other cavity preventing agents to arrest dental decay.
- Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.
- Expose and develop x-ray film.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Dental Support Services and Allied ProfessionsSee 105 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Helping and teaching
Hands-on and practical
Analytical and curious
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $98,100 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.