The Dental Hygiene Program is seeking accreditation by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association. For further information, contact the American Dental Hygienists' Association or the Washington State Dental Hygienists' Association. Dental hygienists clean teeth and provide other preventive dental care, as well as teaching patients how to practice good oral hygiene. Dental hygienists should work well with others and must have good manual dexterity because they use dental instruments with little room for error within a patient's mouth. Recommended high school courses for aspiring dental hygienists include biology, chemistry, and mathematics.
Hygienists examine patients' teeth and gums, recording the presence of diseases or abnormalities.
Dental hygienists use hand and rotary instruments to clean teeth, x-ray machines to take dental pictures, syringes with needles to administer local anesthetics, and models of teeth to explain oral hygiene. Dental hygienists also help patients develop and maintain good oral health. For example, they may explain the relationship between diet and oral health, inform patients how to select toothbrushes, and show patients how to brush and floss their teeth. Flexible scheduling is a distinctive feature of this job. Dentists frequently hire hygienists to work only 2 or 3 days a week, so hygienists may hold jobs in more than one dental office.