Dental Hygienist Job Outlook

In short, the dental hygienist job outlook is auspicious. Dental hygienist employment is expected to grow a good deal faster than average through 2014. According to the 2000-2001 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Monthly Labor Review published by the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, the dental hygiene practice will continue to be among the top 30 fastest growing professions. This prospect is largely in response to increasing demands for dental care and the greater utilization of hygienists to perform services formerly taken on by dentists. Dental hygienist job openings are expected to remain abundant particularly as some areas of the country are currently complaining of a lack of dental hygienists.

Population growth and greater retention of natural teeth (particularly among the growing pool of senior citizens) will fuel the demand for dental hygienists. In addition, seasoned dentists (who have been less likely to employ dental hygienists) are retiring and turning over their occupations to recent graduates (who are much more apt to employ one or two hygienists). As dentists' workloads swell, they are expected to hire more hygienists to perform preventative dental care, such as cleaning, in order to dedicate their time to more invasive and thereby profitable procedures.

"Nontraditional" dental hygienist students enjoy a particularly favorable job outlook, especially if they are over 23 years of age, seek career shift or re-employment or hail from a culturally diverse background. Dental hygienist education currently includes dental hygienist programs that are flexible and tailored to the nontraditional dental hygienist student who is better scheduled in part-time or evening hours.