 Hello everybody, Andrea Mayeski here with Dental L. So I have been practicing in the dental profession for about 14 years now. I was a dental receptionist, a dental assistant, a dental hygienist, a restorative hygienist, and now I do own my own practice as a dental hygiene mobile. So I do go to everybody's homes, offices, nursing homes, and I clean their teeth. So what are some pros and cons of being a dental hygienist? And this is coming from somebody who has had some amazing times in the dental profession, but also some horrible times too. So let's talk about the cons first, because everybody always likes to hear the bad before they hear the good. So the bad is, is that it's not your typical nine to five type of occupation. If you start at nine o'clock, well, you should be there for 8.30 to set up your room, look through charts, and just kind of know what's happening throughout the day. If you're done at five o'clock, well, that will not be the case because patients will probably be late. And you always have to clean everything up, set everything up for the next day, probably help your other team members. So you are never done when you think you are. If your shift is nine to five, you will not be done at five o'clock. But that's another thing. Shifts are not typically nine to five. You will likely have to work at least one evening per week, depending on when the office is open. So it could be till six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, or nine o'clock. When I first became a dental hygienist, I would take any shifts that I was able to get because I wanted as much experience as possible, and I was so excited. But I worked about two or three evenings a week. Some of those days were like 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. So who wants to work only three hours? Plus I was probably home 9.30, 10 o'clock by the time I was done, right? So you don't always get the full eight hours. You do not always get a full lunch. Again, because the patients are behind, you can't just stop in the middle of a patient to take your lunch. And then if you're seeing another patient after lunch, well, you just might not get that full lunch, right? So those, I would say, are definite negatives about the profession. Insurance, you do not typically get insurance these days. If you work full time and you're lucky to get insurance, that is so nice. Like dental, health, chiropractor, all of that, it is so nice to have. But I find lately being in the dental profession, that's just not something you're typically offered. In this profession, I find you are expected to do more and more and more and you're not necessarily paid more. So unfortunately, us as dental assistants, even dental hygienists, we have to do so much, but we don't always get a raise and we don't often get bonuses. We don't get acknowledgement of a job well done, if that makes sense. We are just expected to do awesome. We are expected to do amazing, but we don't typically get a thank you for that. It does depend, of course, on the office where you are. Hopefully you will work for an amazing office. But that's another con, is that there are so many offices out there these days that are not amazing. Dental offices are opening up left, right and center, meaning just random dentists everywhere with no experience. They want to pay off their student loans. They want to make the money quick, quick, quick, quick. So you might get hired on, you'll have to do patients in like half an hour, you'll have to clean teeth in half an hour, 40 minutes, hurry, hurry, hurry, you know, that type of thing. So that can be a difficult situation too. In the ideal world, you are cleaning teeth for one hour appointments. That is the way to go. Hopefully you have all of the instruments that you need, everything you need. But that's another con, that's not always the case. Depends on the office where you work. A lot of offices will not buy the best of the best instruments. So you might have two or three instruments to work with with no time to ever sharpen those instruments, especially if you're the only hygienist in the office, when are you going to sharpen those instruments? Likely you will have to do it on your own time because they don't want to pay you a lot of money to sharpen your instruments. That's something else that I have found as well. As a dental hygienist, you do make good money, but offices will try to pay you a lot less. Offices will try to say that if a patient doesn't show or a patient cancels, you will be paid less. Don't let them do that to you. That's another con for sure. Another one is this profession is hard on your neck, back, shoulders, the whole works. It is hard on your body, especially if you work full time. I haven't worked full time for a long time. I do tutor primarily full time. So that's what I do full time, but that's obviously a lot less harsh on my body than it is doing dental hygiene full time. So if you do do dental hygiene, even dental assisting full time, it's a lot of work. It's hard on your body. So something to keep in mind as well. I'd say that's probably the most negative thing to say about the profession is that it is very hard on your body. And every hygienist, every hygienist who has been practicing for 20, 30 years, they all say the same thing. That is the one big thing that they say is do not become a dental hygienist because it's very hard on your body. I've been practicing for 14 years. So maybe that's why I don't feel the negative effects, but I have not always been full time either. So that's something else to consider. What else? Another thing, kind of a side note, being a dental hygienist can be tricky because other staff members for whatever reason don't tend to like that. Hopefully you work in a good office, but especially if you are a younger dental hygienist, for some reason, a lot of dental assistants, dental receptionists think you think you are so amazing and you are a diva and they don't like to help you. They don't like to do a lot of that. And that's not me speaking from experience, but that's actually what other hygienists have told me when I just kind of said to them, oh, hey, what are some pros and cons that you would say about the profession? And that was one of them, but they often get treated in a negative way because everybody thinks that they should just do everything themselves, that they never need help. So I think that that's a con as well. Some pros about the profession, so let's change things up a little bit here, is it's an amazing profession. If you want to clean teeth, if you want to work on your own per se, like yes, you do still have to work under a dentist if you're in a dental office, but you're not working with them, right? Like you do your own thing, you talk to the patients how you want to talk to them, and then you call the dentist in for a check. There you go, done and done. So that is awesome, I love that. That was the big reason why when I was a dental assistant, I became a dental hygienist after that because I wanted to work independently. I wanted to work on my own. And another exciting thing of course is since 2007 I believe, we have been able to start our own practice. So that is awesome. Depending on the type of practice, of course, but a dental hygienist, at least in Ontario, is allowed to start her own practice. I do not have a physical location, but I go to nursing homes, I go to people's homes, offices, and I clean teeth, I love it. It's the most amazing thing ever. Other pros are if you need to take time off, you're able to do that. They seem to let you, they understand that you're going to want time off. You will want to have children, things like that. A lot of hygienists have said to me, this profession is so easy, and so understanding that if you want to take time off, that's okay. Another nice thing is, is that if you want to work six to nine, three days a week, that is probably possible. If you want to work one to nine, if you want to work one to five, if you want to work nine to two, this is all possible. It's just a matter of finding another hygienist who wants to work the other hours also. So that's kind of a neat thing too. You don't always have to work nine to five. You can sort of change it up if you have to be at home in the morning to take your kids to school, where you can always start later, as long as there's another hygienist, obviously to do the other hours for you. Some more pros are, I don't know, like I just love being a dental hygienist. So it's funny, it's a lot easier to think of the bad things, but having that said, I talk about hygiene all the time, I love it. I tell everybody who's even thinking about it, this is an amazing profession. You should do it, because it is, you can work for yourself, you can help people. They like having their teeth cleaned usually. It's not like they're going to the dentist saying, oh, I have to be here to get a needle. No, they're coming to you to get their teeth cleaned. So they usually like that. So that's kind of nice too, right? And I find as a dental hygienist, you don't do it because you wanna make a ton of money. You do it because you love being with people, you love being with patients, you wanna help out, but you do also make a good income doing it too. You're not going to make minimum wage being a dental hygienist, right? You do make a good income. The more you work, the more you get paid. So that's a nice thing too. Yeah, I'm probably forgetting something you guys. So please make sure to comment below, let me know what you guys think because I probably missed something and I will see you guys in the next video. I do hope that this helped.