A hygienist is a healthcare professional that specializes in the promotion and preservation of clean conditions. A hygienist can decide to work as a dental hygienist, industrial hygienist, or medical hygienist. The main objective of a hygienist is to prevent people from falling ill or getting injured due to unhygienic conditions.
A hygienist's typical duties, regardless of their specialty area, include monitoring, assessing, and controlling hygiene matters. They also help identify potential risks and advise on how to avoid them. Hygienists spend time sterilizing instruments and conducting training on hygiene matters. A successful hygienist ought to have communication skills, analytical skills, problem-solving skills, and detail-oriented skills.
A hygienist typically works the regular schedule full time from Monday to Friday. The job involves a bit of traveling for those who work in different branches of the same company. They may also work extra hours once in a while.
How to Become a Hygienist
What is a Hygienist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Hygienist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.05 an hour? That's $83,312 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 23,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Hygienist Do
There are certain skills that many Hygienists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Critical thinking, Communication skills and Problem-solving skills.
How To Become a Hygienist
If you're interested in becoming a Hygienist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.4% of Hygienists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.9% of Hygienists have master's degrees. Even though some Hygienists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Hygienist. When we researched the most common majors for a Hygienist, we found that they most commonly earn Associate Degree degrees or Bachelor's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Hygienist resumes include Master's Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Hygienist. In fact, many Hygienist jobs require experience in a role such as Dental Hygienist. Meanwhile, many Hygienists also have previous career experience in roles such as Dental Assistant or Assistant.
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Hygienist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of Dental Hygienist you might progress to a role such as Clinical Instructor eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title Registered Nurse Manager.
Hygienist Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Hygienist
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Hygienist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Hygienist Jobs - $107K and Up
- Entry Level Hygienist Jobs
- Part Time Hygienist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Hygienist Jobs
Create The Perfect Resume
Our resume builder tool will walk you through the process of creating a stand-out Hygienist resume.
Check Jobs That Match To Your Education
Top Colleges for Hygienists
1. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD • Private
5. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
6. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Private
7. New York University
New York, NY • Private
8. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Private
9. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
10. SUNY at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY • Private
Find the best Hygienist job for you
Hygienist Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Hygienist Jobs - $107K and Up
- Entry Level Hygienist Jobs
- Part Time Hygienist Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Hygienist Jobs
Online Courses For Hygienist That You May Like
Recent studies indicate that the prevalence rate of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has risen dramatically over the past decades and a likely trend of continual global surge in autistic child patients. Children with ASD have oral sensitivities and daily oral hygiene management could be difficult. In caring for autistic children, it is essential to understand the unique behaviors and other possible comorbid conditions and in particular, to gain the confidence and cooperation of the patient before...
This course will focus on the interprofessional realtionship of dentistry and medicine. For each session, the medical specialist will present a broad overview of specific disease entity which will be followed by a dental educator discussing the relevant oral manifestations and implications. The final module of each session will be devoted to the interaction between the dental and other health care professionals...
Acute stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency. In acute ischemic stroke, the first objective is to restore brain flow using sistemic thrombolytic treatment and, in patients with large vessel occlusion, by endovascular treatment. In hemorrhagic stroke there are also specific treatments that can improve the clinical outcome. The sooner the initiation of all these therapies the higher the clinical benefit. Thus, the organization of Stroke Code systems coordinated between emergency medical syst...
Top Skills For a Hygienist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.8% of Hygienists listed Oral Hygiene on their resume, but soft skills such as Critical thinking and Communication skills are important as well.
- Oral Hygiene, 18.8%
- Dental Procedures, 13.4%
- Patient Care, 12.2%
- Clinical Findings, 10.8%
- Aspen, 9.5%
- Other Skills, 35.3% See All Hygienist Skills
12 Hygienist RESUME EXAMPLES
Build a professional hygienist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your hygienist resume.
Best States For a Hygienist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Hygienist. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Oregon. Hygienists make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $85,422. Whereas in Massachusetts and Connecticut, they would average $84,833 and $83,783, respectively. While Hygienists would only make an average of $83,295 in Oregon, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New Hampshire
$83,276
Avg. Salary
2. Oregon
$83,295
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$80,752
Avg. Salary