Dental hygiene as a career?

Magenta · 17-12-2009 5:44pm #1

Hi everyone,
I am in the process of forging a new career and one of the occupations I am interested in training in is dental hygiene.
In addition to the online research I am doing I would love to hear Boardsies experiences- can anyone out there give me any pointers on this job, i.e. pro's and cons, how easy it is to find work, average salary?

Thanks!

M

btkm8unsl0w5r4 · 17-12-2009 7:58pm

Are you think of applying as a mature student or through the CAO? I know a lot of mature students are trained dental nurses already. Personally i think its a good job. You get to be very good at a particular thing, hygienest are way better at cleaning teeth than me anyway. I know there are a few here on the forum....lets see that they say.

Magenta · 17-12-2009 9:18pm

I'm 23 so I'd be a mature student. I already have a B.Sc in Biology which I am hoping will put me ahead of other applicants. I am considering studying in the US or Canada but would like to be registered here too.

ballsymchugh · 17-12-2009 9:33pm

some friends of mine went back as mature students to UCC, two were dental nurses already though. i'll find out from them how they got in. i'm not sure how the registration would be a problem if you had an american degree.
there was a time in UCC that it didn't matter what qualifications you had, it was how good you looked. you should've seen, and heard that class. oh God.

Magenta · 17-12-2009 9:57pm

are there a decent number of jobs to be had in it? I understand that a lot of people work for 2 or more practises because most practises only need a hygienist 1 or 2 days a week.
i know in Canada some areas are a bit oversaturated with new dental hygiene grads.

ballsymchugh · 17-12-2009 10:53pm

one of them works in 4 different places a week, and as far as i know, they get paid by the hour, not per patient, but that's not certain.

georgieporgy · 18-12-2009 8:27am

Magenta wrote: »

I'm 23 so I'd be a mature student. I already have a B.Sc in Biology which I am hoping will put me ahead of other applicants. I am considering studying in the US or Canada but would like to be registered here too.

Why not do dentistry instead? If you have a degree in biology I think that would suffice for entry requirements??
dental hygiene is a long course nowadays and employment prospects tend to be part time.

btkm8unsl0w5r4 · 18-12-2009 9:49am

georgieporgy wrote: »

dental hygiene is a long course nowadays and employment prospects tend to be part time.

Maybe the same could be said of dentistry these days

ballsymchugh · 18-12-2009 10:11am

agreed, i'm part time. although that's partly because i'm lazy. saying that, i'll probably go back and do some more study. it's going to be quiet in the new year.
last year because of the hpat, dentistry in cork was the hardest course to get into on the CAO, but there's a mature student every few years.
i'd agree with georgie, if you can sacrifice 5 years then you can come on boards dispensing advice when patients don't show up!

Magenta · 18-12-2009 2:15pm

The fees for dentistry would be horrendous though. I'd be scared stiff taking out a loan for that sort of money, cos if I fail I'm still stuck with the first year's worth of tuition to pay back to the bank, and no high earning dentistry salary to pay it back. Yeah I know my attitude is bad but I wasn't very good at studying when I was doing the B.Sc (partly because I had to do maths, physics and computer programming for the first 3 years...which had nothing to do with the Biology degree I was going for...stupid General Science degrees!).

Dental hygiene as a career?

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