Dental Hygienist
What the work is
Assesses, diagnoses, treats, manages and educates to prevent oral disease, and promotes healthy oral behaviours. This may include non-surgical periodontal or gum treatment, preventative services and other oral care.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assesses, diagnoses, treats, manages and records patients' oral health status
- Performs dental cleaning to remove plaque and calculus from teeth
- Applies fluoride treatments and dental sealants
- Takes dental radiographs (X-rays) to assist in diagnosis
- Provides oral hygiene instructions and education to patients
- Performs non-surgical periodontal therapy (scaling and root planing) to treat gum disease
- Collaborates with other dental practitioners to ensure optimal patient care
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a school dental clinic in a van, visiting small primary and secondary schools. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A child who was terrified of the chair laughs and asks to come back
- A student tells their friends how to look after their teeth, using your words
- Spotting a small problem early so it never turns into a big one
Hard days
- A day of nervous children, some of whom will not open their mouths at all
- A parent who thinks a problem is not serious when you know it is
- Working close, bent over, for hours, with the van's air conditioning on its last legs
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 269131, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.