Dental Hygienist Essay

In rural areas, most of that population do not have the best oral health. Dental care in rural areas is mainly restorative dental work meaning it is mainly cleaning, checking out tooth decay, and seeing what the next step is to help the patient. A dental hygienist normally completes all of these procedures meaning a dentist is not necessarily needed to go over these types of things. Dental hygienists are the frontline of dental care in rural areas. Dental hygienists are becoming more of a demand in rural areas; they have a higher ratio in comparison to the need of dentists. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Jobs in the dental industry are 19% obtained by dental hygienists, meaning there are 37,000 dental hygienists jobs in the

They do many things a dentist normally would do and can work for the most part without the help of a dentist. “Dental hygienist examine the teeth structure, clean, and polish their patients’ teeth… Dental hygienist also take, process and interpret x-rays, take impressions and apply cavity-preventive agents to the patient’s teeth”(Institution). These responsibilities are just some of the tasks dental hygienist do. Hygienist are the ones who clean your teeth, try to diagnose any problems, and access the head and neck regions to make sure nothing is wrong. “Dental hygienists provide a variety of preventive services, including scaling, polishing teeth, and teaching patients how to have good oral health (Geshelin).” Dental hygienist do all the “dirty” work in the dental industry, the dentist just comes in after the dental hygienist has done all the work and checks the patient’s teeth so the dentist knows nothing is wrong or if there is a problem how they are going to fix it. They are the answer to dental care in rural areas; they cost less meaning rural areas can afford dental hygienists. Dental hygienists do all the common work in dentist offices, with that being said the statistics that dental hygienist will continue to be in high demand is true. In this article it states some ethical problems dental Hygienist face, “ Hygienist schedule their own appointment and help make

They help the dentist out and sometimes they are not treated with the respect they deserve, dental hygienists can feel unappreciated. Dentist sometimes do not give the dental hygienist the credit they deserve. Dental hygienists do most of the work, therefore, dentists have a very small amount of in office work they have to do. With the help of dental hygienists, dentists can focus a lot of their time on surgerys patients will need and other major dental issues they might have. Dental hygienists deserve the utmost respect and credit for their hard work. “Ideally, the working relationship between a dental hygienist and dentist should be one of mutual respect, trust, and loyalty” (Glasscoe). The dentist should respect the hygienist and all the other employees around he or she. The dentist and dental hygienists at the dentist office I have always gone to, even as a child have always gotten along and I hope if I have a career in dental hygiene I will get along with my coworkers as