Dental Hygienists work with both children and adults to provide information about dental hygiene and offer dental services to patients who need support with looking after their teeth and gums.
Working Life
Working as a Dental Hygienist will mean that you’ll take part in a variety of different tasks during your working day. These can include:
- Working with patients on either an individual or small group basis.
- Providing a scaling service to patients, sometimes using local anaesthetic.
- Providing a tooth polishing service to patients.
- Providing topical fluoride or fissure treatments to patient’s teeth.
Dental Hygienists work in a variety of settings including:
- Community dental services.
- Acute hospital settings.
- General dental practices.
- Private practice.
Dental Hygienists can work with service users on a one-to-one basis, in small groups or in larger groups depending on the client’s specific need.
Dental Hygienists save teeth by working to prevent gum disease which also helps patients to get rid of other dental related problems such as bad breath.
Dental Hygienists work alongside dentists and provide the treatments recommended by dentists at a patient’s initial appointment. Some dental hygienists and therapists have additional training to be able to work independently and to see patients without them having to see a dentist first.
Dental Hygienists working in community settings will work with a range of patients who may have additional needs. Dental Hygienists working in acute hospital settings will support patients who have received major surgery or complicated orthodontic treatment. Patients in this setting may be very unwell, nervous or anxious after life altering surgery.
Requirements
Becoming a Dental Hygienist requires you to complete a course approved by the General Dental Council (GDC) and you will then need to register with the General Dental Council before you can practice.
Entry requirements for Dental Hygienist programmes usually include:
- two or three A levels
- five GCSEs (grades 9 to 4/A to C)
- or a recognised dental nursing qualification
Subjects studied to become a Dental Hygienist include:
- anatomy
- physiology
- preventative dentistry
- dental health education
- dental pathology
- management and care of patients
Some dental schools offer combined dental therapy and dental hygiene programmes.
Degree Apprenticeship Route
For those interested in becoming a Dental Hygienist through an apprenticeship route, there are a growing number of degree apprenticeship routes available.
Opportunities to access these apprenticeships are currently limited and you would need to apply for an apprentice post at a healthcare employer willing to support the programme initially.
Other routes to be coming a registered dental hygienist include working initially in another support role for an employer before stepping onto the apprenticeship pathway to dental hygiene.
Personal Characteristics
To work successfully as a Dental Hygienist, you need to consider your own personal characteristics. You would need to have the following attributes or similar:
- Be resilient and open to new ways of working.
- Be supportive of service users who experience nervousness related to dental procedures.
- Have a non-judgemental and supportive attitude.
- Be able to work with a variety of different people from differing backgrounds and experiences.
Skills Required
To work successfully as a Dental Hygienist, you need to consider the skills that you have. You would need to demonstrate the following:
- Be well organised and able to plan your time.
- Be able to communicate with a variety of people using different methods.
- Be able to put service users at ease quickly.
- Be patient.
Training and Development Opportunities
Once qualified and registered as a Dental Hygienist, you can continue to develop your career over time. You’ll have access to a yearly continuing professional development (CPD) check-in where you can discuss any additional training needs or qualifications you would like to achieve.
You could undertake additional training to offer sedation or tooth whitening services and other development opportunities within dental hygiene include becoming a practice manager or orthodontic therapist. If you enjoy working with other professionals, you could also become an educator and train other dental hygienists to carry out the role.
Pay and Benefits
Dental Hygienists in the NHS usually work 37.5 hours a week and you could be required to work flexibly over 7 days depending on the setting you work in. You could also be required to work evenings and weekends on occasion.
Dental Hygienists working in NHS settings are paid using the Agenda for Change (AfC) system and will typically start their career on AfC band 5 or 6 but with experience, further training and additional qualifications, can progress further up the pay scale.
Dental Hygienists working in other settings or who are self employed will have alternative working hours and pay and they will be paid according to the employer they work for.
Other benefits of working as a Dental Hygienist in the NHS include access to a pension scheme, health service discounts such as Blue Light Card and 27 days of annual leave in addition to bank holidays.