Students & New Grads

I have been working in a dental office now for less than a year and have landed my first real job as a licensed dental hygienist. I am learning new things each day and am beginning to feel more comfortable using my instruments and taking radiographs. However, being new comes with its own set of challenges; especially patients joking...

As hygienists, we’ve all been there; newly graduated and new to the “real world.” While the hygiene program prepares us to be excellent clinicians, it cannot completely prepare us for everything we will face in the working world. Only experience can do that. Here are quotes from newly-licensed dental hygienists who are making it through the learning curve of...

Sweaty palms, right armpit smelling as per its now-normal state thanks to menopause, light-headedness from lack of sleep thanks to anxiety over the exam, and again, hormonal insomnia. Nausea so bad I thought I might vomit right on my partner… who lay there trusting me with her life. She gagged so hard, sitting up, coughing from all the extra anesthetic...