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

state of mississippi. Dentist only cover about 16% dental jobs in Mississippi”(“Bureau of Labor Statistics”). The ratio for dentists is lower because dental hygienists are the ones who help make sure the patient is taking the right precautions to prevent dental diseases. Dental hygienists take care of the screening, diagnoses, and give out proper oral hygiene tips. This article is giving the rundown of what dental hygienist do,“Dental hygienists do everything for the patient’s oral health care. Dentists check the x-rays of the teeth and access any problems that are in their field” (“Bureau of Labor Statistics”). Dentists are not as high of a demand because by the time they come and see the patient the dental hygienist has fixed whatever problem they had the best why the were trained to, or has already gone through their daily check off list when seeing a patient. Therefore, dentist are needed, but they do not do nearly as much work as the dental hygienist do. In rural areas they need dental hygienists that do not cost as much as dentists,but will still work hard.
Dental Hygienist do a lot of work in the office where they are helping co-workers and patients.

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

appointments for dentist” (Majeski).
Dental Hygienist do all the common work for the dentist and help them reschedule appointments.

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

well.
Dentist and Dental hygienist have very similar occupations, but dental hygienists are extremely important in rural areas because patients can stop by get their teeth cleaned or checked on and then leave. If there were no hygienists then it would be a very drawn out process, many more and more people would stop going to get check ups. This is why the fact that dental hygienists are in more demand than dentist. Another reason they are in such a high demand is because they get paid less than a dentist so clinics can hire more of them than they can dentist.