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Overview
Dental hygienists clean and polish teeth, remove tartar above and below the gum line, apply preventive materials and advise patients on oral hygiene and mouth care under dental supervision.
In job descriptions, look for scaling, polishing, prophylactic materials, oral hygiene advice, patient data, mouth care, dental instruments, supervision by dental practitioners and patient-specific prevention.
Explore this occupation
Open in Job ExplorerWhat the work can involve
Dental hygienist work is preventive patient care in a dental setting. The role cleans and polishes teeth, removes tartar, applies preventive materials, records observations and gives oral-hygiene advice under dental direction.
Skills and specializations
Useful depth includes scaling above and below the gum line, polishing, prophylactic materials, patient communication, oral hygiene instruction, careful data collection and handling dental instruments safely.
Salary context
Pay expectations are shaped by clinical responsibility, patient flow, preventive-care depth, supervision arrangements, record work and whether the role includes education, assessment support or specialist oral-health services.
Career paths
Experience can lead toward senior preventive care, oral-health education, clinic coordination, specialist patient groups, dental team training or broader public oral-health work.
Good to know
Check whether the advert names scaling, polishing, prophylaxis, patient advice, data collection and supervision. These details show how clinical and advisory the position is.
Editorial note
This guide is editorial career context, not official labour-market statistics or role-specific pay data.
Map overview
Click the map to search for dental hygienist jobs.
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O*NET relationships
See occupations connected to this ESCO occupation in the official O*NET–ESCO mapping. The relationship type comes from the source and is not a ranking or recommendation.
O*NET relationships: 2
Dental Assistants
31-9091.00
Close relationship
The occupations are closely related, but the official mapping does not treat them as exact equivalents.
Open in O*NETDental Hygienists
29-1292.00
Exact relationship
The official mapping treats the O*NET and ESCO occupations as closely equivalent.
Open in O*NETSource and method
These relationships come from the official European Commission O*NET–ESCO crosswalk.
Relationship direction: O*NET occupation to ESCO occupation.
Several O*NET occupations can point to the same ESCO occupation, and one O*NET occupation can point to several ESCO occupations.
AltoTrail preserves the source relationship type. The order is technical and does not show which occupation is best, most relevant or recommended.
AltoTrail validates and presents the source relationships without adding ranking or recommendation semantics.
Alternative labels
Occupation group
Dentists (2261)
Source facts
| ESCO URI | http://data.europa.eu/esco/occupation/d18deca3-3063-4970-9ddc-e3c70404a28c |
|---|---|
| ESCO code | 2261.3 |
| ISCO group | 2261 |
| Concept type | Occupation |