5 Reasons being a dental hygienist is harder than you might think
Dental hygienists are often discounted in their role as healthcare professions by the public. Nor is the public aware of the schooling it takes to become a dental hygienist. Even further, many don’t understand how physically demanding dentistry is, despite the fact it looks like we are just sitting there.
“Oh, you’re a dental hygienist?! Don’t you just scrape on teeth? What an easy job you have!” Not so fast there!
Dental hygienists are often discounted in their role as healthcare professions by the public. Nor is the public aware of the schooling it takes to become a dental hygienist. Even further, many don’t understand how physically demanding dentistry is, despite the fact it looks like we are just sitting there.
Is the public entirely in the wrong for not knowing? To be fair, many of us don’t know what education it takes to be an electrician and what it takes to wire a house to code so it doesn’t burn down. So we shouldn’t expect everyone know all about the dental hygiene profession either. However, I’d like to help with that. Here are five reasons being a dental hygienist is harder than you might think.
1. Dental hygienists are college educated
There are countless articles stating dental hygienists only have two years of college education because a number of dental hygiene programs give an associate degree. What is left out of these articles is the fact there are college prerequisite classes to be taken before one enters a two-to-three-year dental hygiene program. This adds at least a year (and for many, even longer) of additional college education. Depending on the particular program some of these prerequisites include pharmacology, anatomy, and physiology, biology, microbiology, chemistry, medical terminology, along with English/writing, math, public speaking, with some humanities, philosophy, and psychology sprinkled in-pretty much the same prerequisites of other healthcare professionals, like nurses. Some enter an associate degree dental hygiene program with an associate’s degree already because of all the prerequisites. Many hygiene programs are becoming bachelor-degree programs because the education is reflective of one.
The dental hygiene program is no walk in the park either. Am I saying it's astrophysics? No, but many tears are shed due to the rigor. Then comes board exams. There’s the eight-hour written board, the clinical board, the clinical anesthesia board, and the written anesthesia board. Further, a dental hygienist must take continuing education credits to keep their license valid every licensure period as well. So dental hygienists’ education never stops; as new research and protocols emerge, we have a duty to stay current to serve our patients to the best of our ability.
The point is dental hygienists learn far more than just “scraping on teeth.” Heck, we can even spot certain diseases before your body ever shows them. Some hygienists even go on to get their master’s or PhD. Dental hygienists use very sharp instruments and stir up bacteria in your mouth; you better bet we are college-educated.
