 Good morning everybody. Andrea here. The topic of this video today is going to be should you go to university to get your bachelor's in dental hygiene or if you're wanting to become a dental hygienist should you just go to a regular college program and go through that. What if you are currently a dental hygienist and wondering should I extend my education, go back to university to get my bachelor's. So I'm going to talk about this a little bit and I'm going to explain my process and what I'm doing and why I may or may not be going a certain way. So I have been a dental hygienist now for many years. I've been a dental professional for about 18 years. I started off as a dental assistant. I was a dental receptionist. I became a dental hygienist. Then I expanded to become a restorative dental hygienist and now I have my own mobile dental hygiene practice. So I'm not working for a dentist. Now I went to college for my dental hygiene program. I actually went to college twice because my first college went bankrupt literally three weeks before I graduated. I'm not even joking. It was insane. So I attended the program twice. Each time it was about 18 months. So 18 months the first time and then 18 months the second time where I went to a college in Toronto to finish my dental hygiene program. Now am I going to continue my education to get a bachelor's in dental hygiene? No I'm not and I'm going to tell you why. Me getting my bachelor's in dental hygiene isn't going to make it easier for me to get a job. It's not going to give me more money because I have my own mobile hygiene practice. I'm my own boss. If I get a bachelor's in dental hygiene does that mean I can charge more? Does that mean I'm learning more? Does that mean I'm a better hygienist in my opinion? No. A lot of hygienists though do not agree with me on this topic. I went to a dental hygiene education event here in Winnipeg a couple weeks ago and all of the rage, all of the excitement was that dental hygiene is moving towards a university only program, a bachelor's program. And how everybody sees it is dental hygienists are going to be taken more seriously because we have to go through university to get our program to get our credentials. But I don't see it this way. Is a patient going to pay me more because I have my bachelor's? No. I take my own courses. I do my own continuing education so it's not like I stopped learning as soon as I graduated. I don't need to pay a lot of money to go to university to get my bachelor's in dental hygiene to make myself feel better. I'm not saying that's why other dental hygienists do it but I'm just laying it all out for you if this is something you're thinking about even when you're applying for a job. Dentists don't care if you went to college for dental hygiene. They don't care what your marks were. They don't care what your marks were in high school. They certainly don't care if you have your bachelor's in dental hygiene. They're going to hire you one way or another if you're a good dental hygienist, if you're a good person, if you pass the interview process. They're not going to say we're only accepting resumes if they went to university. No. But what this might mean is let's say you want to become an educator. Let's say you want to teach dental hygiene. As far as I know in order to teach in the dental hygiene program, you do need a bachelor's in education, a bachelor's in dental hygiene. This is kind of, it changes a bit depending on where you're located. I'm a tutor online so I have my own tutoring website where I teach dental hygiene and dental assisting students online. This is my education for students. Did I go to university? No. I just simply started my own company. So you don't always have to follow the way everybody else. You don't have to follow everybody else is what I'm saying. But again, you guys, having that said, switching gears a little bit, does it make you feel better to go to university to become a dental hygienist? Then do it. If that's what you want to do. I can tell you right now out of high school, if I had to go to university to be a dental hygienist, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it. I just simply couldn't afford it. And I wasn't interested in spending twice as long getting my education when I could have just gone to college. I do have another video where I talk about why I prefer private colleges for dental hygiene versus regular community colleges. You pay a little bit more, but it's less time. They accept, I guess, less people depending on classes, but there's more classes. That is in another video if you're curious about that. But I'm really curious on your thoughts. Please comment below on if dental hygiene, if the dental hygiene program becomes a university only program, you need to get a bachelor's in dental hygiene to become and work as a dental hygienist. Is this something you're interested in? If you're currently a dental hygienist now, what are your thoughts on this? Am I the only one thinking who cares so far? I think I am because the only dental hygienists that I have spoken to, they've all said no. I think going to university for dental hygiene would be amazing because people will take us more seriously. They will see us as healthcare professionals and we will learn so much more and be a better dental hygienist. I don't agree with this. I'm doing fine on my own. I'm doing fine having taken a college program and working for myself. So please, I am curious on your thoughts. Please comment below. I really look forward to hearing and seeing what everybody thinks. And I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for watching.