Dental Hygienist
Resume Example

Follow these three dental hygienist resume writing tips to get more interviews, faster:

1. Drill down on dental hygiene keywords in your skills section

Your resume’s skills section is a bulleted list of skills-based keywords from the job ad that you didn’t use in the rest of your resume. Adding these resume keywords helps your application get through applicant tracking systems (ATS) and onto hiring managers’ screens.

Because you’re applying for a job in the medical field, you should focus on your technical skills. Here’s an example of a skills section written for a dental hygiene resume:

ADDITIONAL SKILLS

• Patterson Eaglesoft
• Digital radiography (DR)
• Local anesthesia (certified)
• Monitoring nitrous oxide sedation
• Oral prophylaxis
• Scaling and root planing
• Soft tissue management
• CPR (certified)

2. Start with a resume objective or qualifications summary

Unsure how to start your resume? We recommend you summarize your most relevant skills and achievements in a resume introduction to immediately grab hiring managers’ attention.

Just pick the type of introduction that’s best for your experience level:

If you’re applying for your first job after becoming a registered dental hygienist, use a 2–3 sentence introduction paragraph known as a resume objective that lists your:

• dental licenses and certifications
• relevant hard and soft skills
• career goals and how they’ll help you contribute to the clinic you’re applying to

If you have dental hygiene work experience, write a qualifications summary — a 3–4 bullet point list that includes your:

• technical skills and abilities
• major professional achievements
• licensing and certifications
• years of experience and academic degree

Here’s an example of a well-written resume objective for a dental hygienist resume:

Recent graduate with an Associate’s Degree in Dental Hygiene. Equipped with hands-on clinical experience providing oral hygiene care, including dental cleaning, EHR documentation, and dental X-rays. Possess a positive attitude and tireless energy that will help DC Dental Clinic increase its patient satisfaction rates.

And here’s a professional qualifications summary crafted for a dental hygiene resume:

• 6+ years of experience and highly proficient in many areas of the modern dental practice including digital radiography (DR), intraoral camera, soft tissue management, Ka-Vo Diagnodent usage, and applying prevention methods such as topical fluorides and sealants
• Effective periodontal evaluation and treatment including periodontal charting, sonic and ultrasonic instrumentation, scaling and root planing, and oral hygiene instruction and motivation
• Basic life support, nitrous oxide monitoring, whitening procedures, and infiltration anesthesia certification
• Southeastern Regional and National Dental Hygiene Certification – Lic. #2342 Issued 4/11/19
• 3. Write a clean and concise professional experience section

Follow these basic rules when writing your resume’s work experience section:

Professional Experience Do's

• Write in complete sentences
• Emphasize your achievements with hard numbers and examples
• Start each sentence with an action verb

Professional Experience Don’ts

• Repeat bullet points between sections
• Write a bland list of duties
• Include fewer than three bullet points per job

Here’s an example professional experience section written for a dental hygiene resume that follows the above resume guidelines:

ATLANTIC DENTAL SERVICES, Washington, DC

Dental Hygienist, May 2019–Present

• Full-time Hygienist treating 11 patients daily, skilled in patient assessment, treatment planning and explanation, executing dental hygiene/periodontal treatment, and scheduling follow-up appointments
• Evaluate clinical findings, medical history, and previous dental records, integrating the information into plans for excellent dental hygiene
• Trained two new dental assistants in monitoring, ordering, and stocking hygiene room supplies; managing patient recalls; and cleaning, disinfecting, and arranging work surfaces

The candidate highlights their accomplishments on their resume to give the hiring manager a clear picture of their previous experience. Do the same to make your resume more impressive, and increase the chances you’ll get called in for an interview.

We wish you the best on your job hunt and hope your days of terrifying little children with sharp dental instruments will be long and glorious.