While 78 percent of dental hygienists feel economic conditions have affected their "ability to earn the maximum income that you pursue," only 7% say the dental hygiene job market will lead to the "highly likely" decision that they will leave the profession, according to the results of the RDH eVillage annual salary survey.
Dental hygienists across the country also rated the financial health of the dental offices where they practice, and 50% said "business is good, but it has slowed down somewhat." While 26% said schedules remain full, 18% said practice owners are "very concerned about reduced revenues."
The questionnaire was posted in the Sept. 9 issue of RDH eVillage, and 1,491 dental hygienists have participated in the survey as of the deadline for this article.
The survey remains active, so if readers have not answered the survey's questions, they can do so by taking the survey here.
The demographics of the almost 1,500 hygienists who have participated are:
- 51% have been licensed as dental hygienists for at least 20 years.
- 82% practice in general dentistry settings.
- 59% say an associate's degree is their highest level of completed education.
- 46% practice four days a week.
- 84% receive paid vacation and holidays; on the low end of benefits earned by hygienists, only 12% receive life insurance or disability insurance.
- 75% reported their income earned as based on an hourly rate.
The average hourly rate of U.S. dental hygienists working in general dentistry settings is $42.01. Some regions regard dental hygiene salaries in terms of a daily rate. The average daily rate for U.S. dental hygienists working in general dentistry settings is $323.64.
RDH eVillage points out that the averages above are greatly affected by cost-of-living variances across the United States.
Upcoming articles in RDH eVillage will offer state-by-state breakdowns on salaries and other statistics generated by the salary survey, as well as comments from hygienists about employment trends within the profession.
RDH eVillage survey:
Part 1: The overall picture
Part 2: State-by-state breakdown of salaries and benefits
