Dental hygiene is a hands-on career that is both rewarding and challenging. Dental hygienists provide patients within their communities with comprehensive dental hygiene care that includes oral health education, oral health prevention procedures and various complex dental hygiene treatment procedures to treat a variety of periodontal diseases. There are many things a student can do to prepare when applying to dental hygiene schools. 

Professor and dental hygienist Katie Williams, RDH, M.S., of the University of South Dakota shares advice to help guide predental hygiene students.

Acquiring opportunities to shadow a dentist still seems to be a popular subject of little knowledge among dental students, although it is considered the most valuable experience for aspiring dentists during their high school and or undergraduate years.

The process of searching for and setting up dental shadowing experiences can be a daunting task. It can be more complicated than the actual shadowing experience, which often overwhelms many predental students. Most challenges occur when they are unaware of where to start, how to approach the dentist for a shadowing request or they encounter other roadblocks.

Practitioner Sharda Patel, D.D.S. shares her best procedures for requesting a job shadow in this article, along with an example to help get you started.

“So, you’ve been accepted into a dental hygiene program or dental school—congratulations! Taking the next step to further your education can be frightening, exciting and rewarding all at once. But what’s next?” says Janet Franklin, RDH, M.P.A., Dental Hygiene Clinical Instructor at Concorde Career College-Kansas City.

“As a clinical instructor at Concorde-Kansas City, I have been able to experience years of teaching, guiding and assisting the future bright minds of the dental profession—and I am here to share what I’ve learned with you. After seeing many students move from a bundle of nerves on day one to confident, driven graduates, there are some common strategies that the most career-ready have used when walking their path toward success.”

Read on to learn Prof. Franklin’s five tips to ensure your program experience goes as smooth as possible and that you get out of it all that you can.

The personal statement is one of the most important parts of the ADEA AADSAS^® (ADEA Associated American Dental Schools Application Service) application. It gives a dental school’s Admissions Committee the opportunity to assess your motivations and decide if you will be extended an invitation to interview.

“Applicants should use the personal statement as an opportunity to honestly reflect on dentistry as a career choice,” says Larry G. Dunham, D.M.D., FACD, FICD, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. 

“Excitement is in the air as you apply for allied dental health programs and envision yourself as an oral health care provider,” says Jessica Kiser, Ed.D., M.S., RDH, Program Director at Cape Fear Community College and Adjunct Clinical Lecturer, University of Michigan School of Dentistry. “As you do your research, you may talk with current or former students and realize these programs are challenging yet so rewarding. These individuals may tell you about the program’s course load and assessments, and you may start to wonder how to be successful. One way to foster your success is to improve your study skills.”

A few improvements could include creating a schedule, enhancing your reading skills and reviewing course material before and after class.  

“The first time I decided to pursue my dream to do a periodontics residency in the United States, I approached the director of a periodontics program in one school who then asked me to come for a six-month or one-year internship,” says National Boards Educator Swati Gupta, M.D.S., B.D.S.

“Until that moment, the only internship I was aware of, was the one-year mandatory internship during the five-year completion of a Bachelor of Dental Medicine (B.D.S.) in India,” Dr. Gupta said. After some research, she learned quickly that internships and externships are recommended for any national or international student who is keen to continue their career in dentistry in the United States.

Keep reading to learn the advice Dr. Gupta has for any international dentist considering practicing their profession within the United States.

“The personal statement is one of the most important parts of the ADEA AADSAS^® (ADEA Associated American Dental School Application Service) application,” says Anirudha Agnihotry, B.D.S., D.D.S. “It gives a dental school’s admissions committee the opportunity to assess your motivations and decide if you will be extended an invitation to interview. Often, it takes a long time to write it, and individuals may feel lost on how to approach it. I will help guide you on the path to what I believe is a successfully written and effective personal statement.”

After serving in the United States Air Force, Jane Walsh, RDH, J.D., Program Director of Dental Hygiene at Louisiana State University Health New Orleans School of Dentistry (LSUSD), obtained her dental hygiene degree and then later her Juris Doctorate (J.D.).  See More...