What does a Dental Hygienist Do?

A dental hygienist is not a licensed dentist but is a valuable asset to any dentist. While a dentist will have a minimum of four years in dental school after completing a bachelor’s degree a dental hygienist will usually complete their master’s program in one to two years after their undergraduate degree. Dental hygienists can perform a number of different tasks depending on their particular office demands and the state allowances or restrictions in which they are working. A hygienist is a licensed dental professional that is registered with a dental association completing clinical and written board examinations to provide oral health care alongside a dentist.

The Baseline Services that Dental Hygienists Perform

Even though a hygienist can perform assisting duties in the areas of periodontal dentistry and pediatric dentistry, which are specialties focusing on both gums and children, the majority of dental hygienists will be found in general family dentistry. Like in the field of medicine you need your primary general practitioner to suggest a specialist, you should have a general dentist do the same for your oral health.

It starts with scheduling and following through with a dental examination twice a year. This allows your family dental office to develop a history of your oral health. The dental hygienist will play a large role in this assessment in most offices. The examination includes an initial screening procedure. This includes checking for oral cancer, an inspection of your head and neck, all soft tissues and sometimes even a blood pressure reading as well as documenting your pulse. The dental hygienist will most often always take and develop x-rays of the arches to allow the dentist to read and chart what is going on below the gumline. The most popular function of the dental hygienist is that of cleaning your teeth.

Why do You need to have your Teeth Cleaned?

With that dental examination every six months you should also always have your teeth cleaned. We all have millions of bacteria in our mouths every hour of every day. This bacterium is necessary to initiate the process of breaking down foods to get your body the necessary nutrients. The health industry strongly suggests we all brush our teeth twice a day and floss at least once. This keeps the bacteria in check. If allowed to build up in the mouth the bacteria within hours will form a sticky substance on the teeth called plaque. The dental hygienist will professionally help you keep up with the buildup of damaging plaque. They will remove the hard and soft deposits from the surfaces of the teeth with hand instruments. They will check your gums to ensure you do not have gum disease which would result in deeper scaling of the teeth to remove the plaque from under the gumline.

The dental hygienist will also polish your teeth and suggest and teach you how to improve your at-home oral hygiene habits. They often will assist in making impressions of the teeth if that is necessary for a dental bridge or other type of appliance. The dental hygienist is the right hand of a good dentist.

More on Dental Cleaning & Exams : What is Teeth Scaling?