Dental Hygienist Resume: Guide and Examples

During a teeth checkup, you will receive help from both a dental hygienist and a dental assistant. A dental assistant will schedule appointments, prepare your room, and support the dentist during the process. A dental hygienist, on the other hand, will be responsible for those tasks, in addition to providing dental diagnosis, removing sutures, and educating patients on proper dental care. 

Note that a dental hygienist has more extensive, hands-on responsibility than a dental assistant.

As you prepare yourself for the role of a dental hygienist, you will want to brush up on the tips and tricks on how to form a strong dental hygienist resume.

✨ 1. Adopt an ATS-friendly dental hygienist resume format.

Create a top dental hygiene resume by refraining from adding any images or tables. Besides keeping it text-only, make sure to clearly label the headings by bolding text and organize details with bullet points.

✨ 2. Refer to dental hygienist resume templates and examples online.

Having an example lets you gain a better sense of what will fit your dental hygienist resume and what might not work as well. Just like how you go through dental examples during training, you will want to review through dental hygienist resume samples to understand what works best. 

✨ 3. Tailor your dental hygienist resume and incorporate keywords.

Even though there aren’t many types of dental hygienists, each dentistry will have different tasks and focuses for a dental hygienist position. To make sure that you display the proper qualities on your resume, not to confuse it with a dental hygienist cv, make sure to check over the dental hygienist job description and make resume adjustments accordingly.

✨ 4. Include numerical details in your dental hygiene resume. 

The dentistry will love to learn about your past achievements in detail. They will want to hear about how many x-ray scans you took or the number of oral health improvements of the patients you treated each month. 

✨ 5. Adding powerful adjectives can enhance your dental hygiene resume examples. 

Adjectives, if used correctly, help creatively intensify the descriptions you provide in your dental hygiene resume. Including words such as delicately and lightly can show that you are careful in assisting patients.

A resume objective is like a smile, as it will be one of the first things the employer will notice. The resume objective for your dental hygienist resume should be created with proper care to ensure that it is attention-grabbing in a pleasant manner.

Here are three tips for your to write a good dental hygienist resume objective: 

✅ Know the essentials for your dental hygienist resume objective.

An ideal dental hygienist resume objective will include your strongest attributes, the skills you bring to the table, and your career plans. 

✅  Insert the name of the dentistry in your dental hygienist resume objective. 

To show the employer that you are fully dedicated, customize your dental hygienist resume objective as well by including the dentistry name.

✅  Remember to limit the length of your dental hygienist resume objective. 

While you will want to include all the essentials in your dental hygienist resume objective, ensure that it is not too lengthy by limiting it to three lines at most. 

A resume summary is an alternative to the objective mentioned above. The resume summary for your dental hygienist resume should be crafted with great attention to leave a strong impression. For your dental hygienist resume summary, there are three tips:

✅ Use this framework to write your dental hygienist resume summary.  

To have a strong setup for your dental hygienist resume summary, begin with your professional title, followed by your years of experience, and complete with the most role-related skills. 

✅  Include non-professional experience in your dental hygienist resume summary. 

If you have limited work experience for your dental hygienist resume summary, think of other achievements to include, such as awards, attributes, internships, or educational background that can demonstrate your potential as a dental hygienist on your resume. 

✅  Proofread your finalized dental hygienist resume summary. 

While you are crafting your resume summary, you might miss a few mistakes due to your being too focused on deciding what to feature for your dental hygienist resume. Avoid any cavities in your resume by proofreading before finalizing your dental hygienist resume summary. 

Similar to that there are various tools needed for a dental appointment, there are many skills necessary for a successful registered dental hygienist resume. For a smooth process, you will want to carefully arrange your skillsets just like how the dentistry organizes their dental tools.

• Simple bullets in the skill section: 
  • PROS: easy to view
  • CONS: not detailed enough 
• Expanded bullets in the skill section:
  • PROS: detailed
  • CONS: taking up too much space
• Integrated skills in the work experience section:
  • PROS: showing the way your skills can be utilized
  • CONS: not suitable for beginners 
• Categorized skills in the skill section:
  • PROS: those with experience and have broad skillsets
  • CONS: not suitable for many skills

✏️ 1. Prioritize the relevant skills you include in your dental hygienist resume. 

As you think about all the strengths you could include in your dental hygienist resume, start to filter out the ones that aren't as relevant for the dental hygienist position. Even though skills are important to include, having too much in your dental hygienist resume can be excessive.  

✏️ 2. The dentistry will want to see hard and soft skills in your dental hygienist resume. 

While the employer will want a dental hygienist with the proper licensing and dental background, they will also want you to have the interpersonal skills that are required of this job on your resume. Besides listing your strong knowledge in oral health care, add that you are compassionate and friendly. 

✏️ 3. Your skills and experience decide how you can best arrange skills on a dental hygienist resume.  

As you start to narrow down the dental hygienist skills to include, you will want to decide on one of the four bullet point formats to apply. Based on your experience level, you can easily decide what will fit best for your RDH resume.

🖋  Choose a suitable format for your entry-level dental hygiene resume.

While there are three different resume formats for your dental hygienist resume (chronological, functional, and hybrid), you will find that the hybrid format will be more suitable if you are an entry-level applicant.   

🖋 Include a career objective in your dental hygienist resume. 

Since its focus is on your career plans in the industry, you will find that a resume objective will be more effective for your dental hygienist resume with no experience. 

🖋  Highlight your education on your dental student hygiene resume. 

As you are just starting in the dentistry field, you will have little to no experience to include in your resume. In this case, you will want to focus on your educational achievements.

🖋  Include your portfolio or personal websites.

You can compile a professional dental hygienist portfolio to show some training and education programs you have undergone. Or, you might have a personal website that shows your qualifications.  

🖋 Write a sincere dental hygienist cover letter. 

Even a dental hygiene cover letter for a new grad can be extraordinary. Ensure that your dental hygienist cover letter includes the essentials with these five sections: 

• Contact Details
• Introduction
• Motivation
• Qualification
• Closing