Dental Hygienists
Also known as: Dental Hygienist, Dental Nurse, Hygienist (+4 more)
Administer oral hygiene care to patients. Assess patient oral hygiene problems or needs and maintain health records. Advise patients on oral health maintenance and disease prevention. May provide advanced care such as providing fluoride treatment or administering topical anesthesia.
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What You'll Do
- Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments.
- Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease.
- Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist.
- Feel lymph nodes under patient's chin to detect swelling or tenderness that could indicate presence of oral cancer.
- Apply fluorides or other cavity preventing agents to arrest dental decay.
- Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.
- Expose and develop x-ray film.
- Remove excess cement from coronal surfaces of teeth.
- Make impressions for study casts.
- Administer local anesthetic agents.
Essential Skills
Career Fit Overview
Use this summary to understand the kind of profile this role rewards. It helps you judge whether this career looks like a stronger match than your current role, a nearby move worth exploring, or a broader path to compare more seriously.
Top passions
- Helper: Supporting people and making a difference matters to you.
- Maker: Building and fixing energizes you. You like tangible results and practical tools.
- Analyst: Investigating problems and finding patterns keeps you engaged.
Common styles
Attention to Detail, Dependability, Cooperation, Cautiousness, Empathy
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Key Abilities
This career demands strong capabilities in the following areas:
Technologies & Tools
Work Environment & Strengths
Common Strengths for This Career
- Attention to Detail (High importance: 4.78/5)
- Dependability (High importance: 4.77/5)
- Cooperation (High importance: 4.62/5)
- Cautiousness (High importance: 4.55/5)
- Empathy (High importance: 4.45/5)
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Take Free 15-Min Assessment →How to Become One
This career typically requires vocational school, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Some specialized training or certification may also be required.
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Also Known As
This career is known by many different job titles across industries. Here are all the variations:
Career Fit FAQs
Is this career a good fit for me
This page shows the role itself. To see personal fit, use the assessment to compare your interests, motivations, and strengths against this career and against the role you are in now.
Can this help if I want to stay in my field
Yes. Many people use career pages like this to compare nearby roles in the same field and see whether they need a full switch or a better-fit version of the work they already know.
What should I compare first
Start with the daily tasks, the preparation level, and the work-style signals on this page. Then use the assessment to see whether this role looks like a stronger fit than your current role or just a different title.
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