Here it goes - I will lay out full disclosure here.  Don't hate me for it!

• Dental Hygienists ARE NOT making NEARLY as much money per hour as we used to
• We seem to have more responsibilities but making much less
• Business is slow for 95% of dental offices, so we may work one day and not the next
• I know more dental hygienists now then ever, who are looking to go back to school to do something else :(

There you go!  Full disclosure.  You are reading this likely because you are an RDH and are becoming increasingly frustrated by at least one (if not all) of everything I have mentioned above.  

I too am an RDH and have been for many years.  I am like you in that I LOVE being an RDH and the profession.  But, I am becoming frustrated often when I feel I am not appreciated for the hard work I do.  Either by patients who get annoyed when I am a mere 10 minutes behind or being called that the schedule fell apart and I won't be working that day.  I want to tell these patients "Ok Sir, you have no idea but I have 30 minutes to clean someones teeth.  My last patient hasn't had their teeth cleaned in 5 years PLUS he was 10 minutes late (for his 30 min appointment).  Ah the things we WANT to say sometimes...

The dental office is a business so it's  not our bosses fault, they need to make money too and having us sit around and do nothing certainly makes NO SENSE.  But...I still want to work and get paid.  You do too right?

Hang in there everyone!  Do whatever you can to fill that schedule if lost hours is the issue.  Get on the phones when you have time and call!  Call, call and call some more!  Booking patients in your schedule will help you and making sure they book an appointment before they leave is HUGE.  I do this in my own office.  

Last but not least, as I am sure your hourly rate is an issue.  Ask your boss for a raise!  If he or she says "business has been slow" and it doesn't make sense to give you one, then ask for an extra week PAID vacation or something else.  Do NOT take no for an answer and I mean it. If your boss needs to think about it, that is OK, but make sure to follow up a few weeks later.

GOOD LUCK!  Email me if you need a pep talk or some tips :) 

A fellow dental hygienist inspired me enough to write this post.  It is a common trait among dental hygienists that we want to be the best we can and provide the best service that we can for our patients.  This means being a good person to people around us and being the ultimate clinical dental hygienist to get all that plaque and calculus removed promote optimal oral health. What happens if we feel we aren't the best or not measuring up?

This can quickly eat away at us but can also fuel us to do even better!  What if we notice we left a calculus spur on a radiograph?  We know for it to be there it probably took years and could even be burnished but we also know we need to remove this ASAP!  The fact that it's there means we were missing something and our first reaction is to do whatever we can to get it off.  Maybe we are motivated to take an instrumentation course or ask a fellow, more experienced hygienist for help?  Either way we have a fire under us to figure this out!  In a lot of professions it could be a simple "oh well we will get it next time." or "oh well things happen." but in the dental hygiene profession we think "OH NO!  Get that off, how could I leave that?  What is going on?  How can I learn to do better?"

This ultimately has inspired me to make our mentorship program here at Dentalelle bigger and better.  We now offer portfolio help MONTHLY to help you stay organized and motivated to learn something new each month.  More importantly each month we will discuss several different topics as well.  The topics for this month include resume help, resume creation, access to our job database and how to be happy at your CURRENT office. December we go over clinical skills and being the best dental hygienist you can be :).  Remember, portfolio help is offered EACH MONTH!

Browse our mentorship program here , and be excited about your profession again!  Learning new things each month and goals to follow for all the months after that.