Pros And Cons Of Being A Dental Hygienist

In Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages; young adults are in the stage of “Identity vs. Role Confusion”, meaning that you’re trying to see where you fit in this world. As young adults we search and explore career paths all the time, but eventually you discover where you fit in society. After jumping from career to career, I thought about what job I was drawn to. I decided that I want to be a Dental Hygienist. Well, what is a Dental Hygienist? A Dental Hygienist is an ancillary dental worker specializing in scaling and polishing teeth and in giving advice on cleaning the teeth. When choosing a career you should look at the education, pay, job outlook, what the job entails, pros and cons, and the work environment.
What does this job entail? A

One pro would be the growing employment in the field of dental hygiene. “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of dental hygienists is expected to increase by 38 percent between 2010 and 2020 – considerably faster than average”(Carrington). Dental hygienists will always be in demand because people will always need their teeth to be cleaned! A con would be that it’s a very repetitive job. “Dental hygienists have a specific role to play in dentist’s offices, and they will essentially be repeating the same tasks in the same environment every day”(Carrington). Though each patient is different, a hygienists typically cleans teeth all day. Another con would be the occasional unpleasant patients. As expected, much of a dental hygienist’s job requires working with people’s mouths. Dental Hygienist come into contact with the occasional patient who has bad breath, swollen gums or tooth decay. Another pro would be flexibility in their schedules. Dental hygienists have the option of working full-or part-time, so your schedule may have some flexibility to it. Dental Hygienists don’t have to work nights, weekends or holidays. The last con would be that there’s not much career variety. A job as a dental hygienist is pretty much the same no matter where you decide to live or work. This consistency can be great, particularly if you love what you do, but if you’re looking for more variety, dental hygiene may not be right for you. Every job has pros and cons, but don’t let the cons turn you away from your dream