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Role hub · Dental Hygienists

Dental Hygienist: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of dental hygienists earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$98,100
Hourly
$47.16
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Dental Hygienists administer oral hygiene care to patients. The median pay is $98,100 a year ($47.16 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is an associate's degree (75% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$98,100
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
222,740
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 3 of 5
medium preparation
Most common education
Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
75% of workers
Explore the role

Every page for Dental Hygienists

SalaryDental Hygienist salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeDental Hygienist how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeDental Hygienist resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

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The work

What dental hygienists do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Record and review patient medical histories.
  2. Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease.
  3. Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.
  4. Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments.
  5. Provide clinical services or health education to improve and maintain the oral health of patients or the general public.
  6. Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist.
  7. Expose and develop x-ray film.
  8. Attend continuing education courses to maintain or update skills.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Active ListeningcoreSpeakingcoreCritical ThinkingcoreSocial PerceptivenessService OrientationWritingMonitoringCoordinationPersuasion

Knowledge areas: Medicine and Dentistry, Customer and Personal Service.

Tools and technology

Software dental hygienists use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Henry Schein DentrixMedical softwareIn demand
  • Dental billing softwareBilling and invoicing software
  • Dental charting softwareMedical software
  • Dental clinical records softwareMedical software
  • Dental digital radiology softwareMedical software
  • Dental imaging softwareMedical software
  • Dental intra-oral imaging softwareMedical software
  • Dental office management softwareMedical software
  • Open DentalMedical software
  • Patterson Dental Supply Patterson EagleSoftMedical software
  • Voice-activated perio charting softwareMedical software
  • Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareHot technology

Also called: Hygienist, Licensed Dental Hygienist, Pediatric Dental Hygienist, Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH).

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).