Career Mirror -- by Mark Sproxton

As the first-time client comes into the office for a teeth cleaning, Diann Dubé greets him with a warm smile. After all, she knows smiles. Working as a dental hygienist for 15 years, she's seen thousands of different grins, and has helped many become bolder and brighter.

Dubé thoroughly enjoys her work because, unlike other dental offices, she's allowed to spend time with each client on oral education. Working at Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, Dubé isn't pressured to see as many clients as possible in one day. Instead, she's allowed to see fewer clients, but spend more time with each, ensuring they understand the matters of their mouths. In some offices, however, business comes first. And the dentist, being the employer, calls the shots on how the hygienist spends the working day.

"That's an area where there's a lot of frustration for dental hygienists," Dubé explained. "You should try to help the patient get in better shape, unfortunately, in a lot of offices it is hard to do so. At the end of the evening (although) we're professionals, you're still being paid by someone else." Some offices also have hygienists performing X-rays, and dealing with clerical/administration duties, but not where Dubé works. "My time is mostly utilized in a clinical way," she said. "There's a lot of focus on trying to detect the goals of the patient and what they expect from the office, what they like and what they don't like, and getting a good feel of the patient."

Each morning she begins the day in a group meeting with the dentist and others in the office to discuss which patients are coming in, and what work needs to be done. From there, Dubé looks at the records of the patients, meets with them, and then gets down to inspecting, scraping, flossing, polishing and discussing plans for prevention and treatment. If she notices something suspicious, she'll consult the dentist who will also have a look and they'll determine a course of action.

While Dubé likes the idea of sticking strictly to her hygienist duties, others, she said, enjoy the other tasks to help break the routine of the work. The lack of diversity in the day may account for some of the high turnover among dental hygienists, Dubé said, as does the inconvenience of having to schedule your holidays around those of the dentist. "Taking holidays when the doctor takes them is a bit of a frustration," she added.

But being challenged by patients with gum problems, and helping them eradicate those difficulties help make up for the negative aspects of the work, the Quebec native said. "And the relationships you develop with the patients is what most hygienists like."

Hygienists typically work four days a week, not including weekends, but that is changing as dentists are varying their office hours to attract new clients. In the future, offices of dental hygienists only may be available in Alberta, as they are now in British Columbia. Regardless of where they work, in clinics, doing research, in hospitals, or public health, hygienists must have at least 700 hours of practical work hours, and 75 credits of course work over five years to maintain a licence. Taking yearly certified CPR training is also a licensing requirement.

The educational component for dental hygienists varies slightly from province. In Alberta there's a two-year program, but all are extremely difficult to enter and challenging. Dubé believes the effort pays off. "There's a pretty high demand and it's a great field to find a job."