Students & New Grads

Dental hygiene schools equip future clinicians with the knowledge to navigate through the daily trials of patient treatment. We are taught anatomical structures, clinical skills, radiographic interpretation, pro-fluoride arguments, and community health topics among many other lessons. Long clinic days and difficult patient cases mold us into more efficient and experienced hygienists. While hygiene school is the perfect cocoon where...

It’s here: the time is approaching to move that tassel from right to left. Dental hygiene school has been filled with long days of clinic and long nights of studying, but now it is time to start looking for that first job. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites a shortage of dental health care professionals, it can...

The real world can be a scary place. Whether you’re a newly-licensed hygienist or a “seasoned scaler,” there is always something new to discover and learn, whether it’s new technology or a dental hygiene technique.Yet wouldn’t it have been nice to have someone give you advice on how to brave the real world of dental hygiene? This is guidance...

Hygiene school felt like it would never end. Two years of learning skill after skill, preparing for an insane number of exams, learning more facts than seemed possible to fit into a single human brain, and having to apply it all to pass board exams have all culminated in one thing: a new wave of graduated dental hygienists. So, what...

So you’re a dental hygienist, huh? Yes, yes I am. I am more than that though. Personally, I have goals outside the clinical setting. (And that’s ok if you have no desire to leave the clinic setting too). I hope to one day be an educator or work for a dental company, or possibly be a midlevel dental therapist,...

Being a new hygienist, I find myself facing many challenges beyond clinical work. Acclimating myself to a new set of patients and moving to a different office system have been challenges of their own. While some patients are very open and accepting to having a new hire or a different hygienist provide treatment, some often shy away or get...

What kind of office are you in? There is the kind where it is a utopian bliss, and the team truly is a team of well-intentioned, happy people working cohesively to create the ultimate patient experience. Then there is the office that targets the hygienist because of the income disparity and requires a patient be seen every 40 minutes,...

For some dental hygiene students, their last semester is fast approaching which means preparing for board exams and applying for your dental hygienist state licensure. One of the many board exams a dental hygiene student must take is the national dental hygiene board exam (NBDHE). The NBDHE definitely can be very intimidating. It's one of the many steps and requirements...

Working interviews: Are they good? Or bad? Not all types of career options have the opportunity to have a working interview. In the dental world, this type of interviewing does exist, and looking at working interviews from all sides is important to get the most out of them. A working interview is an opportunity for an applicant to prove their...

Planning has always been pivotal to becoming an effective dental hygienist. Prior, proper, planning is another beast. I’m borrowing this mantra from a trusted colleague/mentor because I have reflected, and recognized this coined phrase has been following me since I began my journey as a dental hygiene student. This mantra is still expected from dental hygiene students, which is...