Students & New Grads

Congratulations! You have finally graduated from hygiene school (that you thought would never end), you have passed all of your boards, and have landed your first job in private practice. Before you begin to feel too overwhelmed, here are some things I wish I knew after hygiene school. Not All Patients Will Be Nice In hygiene school, patients knew that...

Hygiene students learn so much from the hygiene program. However, there’s so much more to learn once we have graduated, passed boards, become licensed, and enter the working world. As a new grad, there are many “first time experiences.” One such experience I encountered as a new grad was treating an autistic patient for the first time. Yes, we...

Are you considering going to hygiene school but uncertain about supporting your family while in school? In my opinion, working through school is possible, but it takes a lot of work. Many adults ask the above question before going back to school regardless of the chosen curriculum. However, dental hygiene school is much more demanding than typical liberal arts degrees....

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...

Whether we are currently in a dental hygiene program or a graduate, we can probably agree about the experiences of a dental hygiene student. The first thing we can agree on is making sure dental hygiene is something you want to do. It is going to take some grit. Being enrolled in the dental hygiene program can be a challenge....

Dental hygiene school can be grueling from that first prerequisite class to clinicals, and all the way through regional and national boards. Long days are followed by late nights forged with blood, sweat, and tears. Yet, it seems some individuals are more immune to the pressures and rigors of college life than others. Why is that? Working as a professor...

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...

Two summers ago, I was preparing to retake my clinical board exam. I had already failed the exam in Great Falls, Montana, and was preparing to drive to Boise, Idaho, to retake the exam. I had never been to Boise. I had never been to or even seen another dental hygiene school. Failure in Boise would have meant that...

Graduation from dental hygiene school is an impressive and rewarding accomplishment. For many, it meant overcoming numerous challenges and obstacles to ultimately achieve the dream of working as a dental hygienist. If you're like me, it means that ─ even after several years of a commitment to prerequisite courses and hygiene courses ─ at the end of it all, you're...

New graduate, I know the past few years probably seem like a blur to you. You've endured many hours of studying, mock boards, clinicals, taking tests, meeting proficiencies, late-night cram sessions, searching for that perfect board patient, and now it has finally paid off! Be proud of your dental hygiene school accomplishments. You really have done so much in a...