The dental hygienist salary stack-up

DentalPost, an online dental job board, helps dental professionals and dental offices to fulfill their employment needs. Their mission is to maintain the most active and extensive resume database the dental industry has ever seen.

In DentalPost’s most recent endeavor, the company surveyed more than 500 dental hygienists about their careers. In this survey, DentalPost learned how these hygienists salaries “stack up” based on their years of experience and weekly hours of work.

We recently spoke with Tonya Lanthier RDH, CEO of DentalPost, Clinical Hygienist at Dr. Charles Arp's practice about what this survey entailed and how they came to their conclusions of calculating average dental hygienist salaries.

She said “calculating salaries for dental hygienists across the country is a complicated formula because there are many factors that play a role: geography, experience, type of practice, hours worked and job loyalty.” Lanthier added that when compared to other profession, “We are very lucky to be in a flexible and rewarding profession because as a hygienist you have the ability to make it what you want.”

In DentalPost’s survey, they also found out some interesting statistics on RDH benefits that play a role in how these hygienists are being compensated. Check out the survey results below to see some of the surprising results.

Click here for enlarged version of the infographic

Click here to read an article by Tonya Lanthier with more information on these survey results.

Anastasia Turchetta, RDH offers her thoughts on the infographic, click here to check them out.

Here is what Anastasia Turchetta, RDH has to say about the infographic ...

I found it interesting that most of the work force for dental hygienists is dominated by both Gen X and Gen Y AND are working part time! This particular fact is impressive, as it also flows with the generation being Gen X and Gen Y make time for family, etc.

Family can mean either they have their own, as shown that 45% are parents OR keeping in mind, we are the sandwich generation. Some of us are parenting our parents! My question is where are the dental hygienists who are in the Boomer generation? Did we expect them to represent our profession highly, especially in the part time arena?

Pleasant surprise is that dental hygienists are a force to reckon with regarding earning their Associates degree and maximizing it for their professional life! Talk about living with intention!
 
East coast dental hygienists are making a statement in the work place! Hard to imagine very little interaction or employment from West coast! My question is; are there really more dental hygienists located on the east coast, are there more dental hygiene schools, or is west coast really that saturated?

This last point perplexes me; very few are offered dental coverage. In a profession with more evidence based research for oral health and total health, how is it possible that our colleagues are not extended that same service they provide each day for thousands of patients? The point is .... it isn't offered! #SMH