Dental Hygienist Career

As a freshman in college, I’m supposed to know what career I want to pursue in the future. However, I’ve had troubles deciding what I want to do with my life because of the continuous growth and expansion of the work industry. All I know for sure, is that I want to positively impact another individual’s life. It is important that I am involved in a career that contributes to a person’s happiness. I want to be “that person” that help boost another individual’s confidence. At this moment, I have two careers in mind: Dental Hygiene or an Elementary School Teacher. Both of these careers are different, but in order for me choose a career it needs to these four focus areas: decent work environment, a stable work schedule, high pay/salary, and good
Its important that I have a “steady” schedule, so that I can plan my personal-life around it. Both careers offer full-time work, 30 - 40 hours per week. However, a Dental Hygienist is more of a part time job. A Dental Hygienist usually works for two clinics at the same time. As a result, has more room for “flexibility”. According to a “profile -survey” that was done though Registered Dental Hygiene Magazine, Hygienist under the age of 30, 55% worked 30-40 hours per week. Whereas Hygienist that were 51- 61 years old, 45% worked 30-40 hours per
Teachers usually work during school hours. However, in order for teachers to do their job, they must create a “lesson-plan”. An Elementary School Teacher are usually making these plans on before and after classes on weekends. To clarify, even though teacher finish work when the school day is over, they are still working to prepare for work. The typical work schedule for teacher is a 10 month, Monday- Friday schedule with a two month summer period (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). The third focus area that is important for me to decide a career path is a high pay/salary. According to Dental Career Education, the entry level pay for Dental Hygienist is $64,100 per year and $31.24 per hour. In the higher, more experienced percentile, the yearly pay is about$74,420 and $35.78 per hour. To further my research, I went ahead and found out O’hau and Maui’s salary for Dental Hygienist. On the island of O`ahu with about 710 people employed, Dental Hygienist gets paid around $34.01 per hour. Then on Maui, with only about 250 people employed, Dental Hygienist gets paid $35.01 per