Foreign Dentist as a Dental Hygienist

[mahendral]

I am a dentist from India with a BDS degree who just moved to the Bay Area and would appreciate any help/information on the questions below -

1) I am on H4 visa. If I complete a Dental Hygiene program here, has anyone heard of H1 work visa sponsorship for a Dental Hygienist ?

2) From salary.com, it says the median pay for a Dental Hygienist is about 80K. Any comments on that whether it is correct ? I am not willing and able to go through the 2 year DDS program here in CA due to some reasons and was wondering if any Dentists from India/Abroad have considered the Dental Hygienist career option in USA

3) The website of various dental hygiene programs says that courses done abroad could be transferred for credit after evaluation. Anyone has any experience on this ?

Thanks in advance for your helpful comments.
Godbless!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[enamelina]

I am a dentist from India with a BDS degree who just moved to the Bay Area and would appreciate any help/information on the questions below -

1) I am on H4 visa. If I complete a Dental Hygiene program here, has anyone heard of H1 work visa sponsorship for a Dental Hygienist ?

2) From salary.com, it says the median pay for a Dental Hygienist is about 80K. Any comments on that whether it is correct ? I am not willing and able to go through the 2 year DDS program here in CA due to some reasons and was wondering if any Dentists from India/Abroad have considered the Dental Hygienist career option in USA

3) The website of various dental hygiene programs says that courses done abroad could be transferred for credit after evaluation. Anyone has any experience on this ?

Thanks in advance for your helpful comments.
Godbless!

hi mahendral,
welcome to SDN-INTERNATIONAL DENTAL forum.
i wish i could answer ur questions but i dont have any information on dental hygiene education for foreign dentists. Anyways, wish u good luck with ur future endeavours.

 

[dgmarius]

hmmm, as far as I know, they will transfer some credits, but it still going to take 2-3 years to complete the program (there are prerequisite courses) and the admission into the dental hygiene program is tough in some colleges. I guess the easiest way is to take the hygiene license exam in Florida and just practice there. THe disadvantage is that the license is good in FL only. About the salary, I would say you would start within the low to mid 40s.
Good luck!

 

[futurdentist]

Isn't there anybody in this forum who is a foreign trained dentist working as a dental hygienist who can give exact details about which college he went to, how much money and time it cost, how much salary was he offered, and if he took any credit for his past dental studies????

 

[mahendral]

Thanks for the three responses....I really appreciate that.

Hopefully some who know something about this responds.

If not I will be doing this in the next few months and will keep all posted.

 

[elto]

Hi: I understand a RDH license does not qualify to get a work visa so I would suggest that you make sure it is going to help you with you INS status before you invest your time and money.....Just my opinion....good luck