Male Acceptance into Dental Hygiene School

[jvancil]

Hello,
I am a 20 year old male with a couple of years of JUCO general education under my belt and I recently discovered dental hygiene. It really seems like a great fit for me. I am considering trying to get into the Wichita State Dental Hygiene program but will have to take another year of pre-reqs before I can be considered. My question is: Is being a male an advantage or disadvantage when trying to get into DH school? And is my 23 ACT and 3.5 GPA enough to get me at least an interview? Also any other advice for a prospective midwest male DH. Thanks for reading

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[americanpierg]

Hello,
I am a 20 year old male with a couple of years of JUCO general education under my belt and I recently discovered dental hygiene. It really seems like a great fit for me. I am considering trying to get into the Wichita State Dental Hygiene program but will have to take another year of pre-reqs before I can be considered. My question is: Is being a male an advantage or disadvantage when trying to get into DH school? And is my 23 ACT and 3.5 GPA enough to get me at least an interview? Also any other advice for a prospective midwest male DH. Thanks for reading

It's not hard getting into dental hygiene school. The hard part, in my opinion, will by finding a job after graduting.

 

[shloopy]

It's not hard getting into dental hygiene school. The hard part, in my opinion, will by finding a job after graduting.

Hm, you could be right about finding a job, but I am not so sure. I shadowed two young dentists who happened to be female, and they both indicated they would love to hire a qualified male hygienist if they could just find one. The dental profession is really ready to catch up to some other professions in terms of quashing a few old stereotypes -- it just needs qualified applicants.

To the OP, I say go for it. It's fortunate that you've found a career you truly feel is a "fit," which is a feeling a lot of people never find about their career. Some schools and employers will be able to see this through your applications / essays / interviews, and for those who do, you will be an attractive applicant. Qualified, happy people are always in demand. My $.02.

 

[RDH]

i am a male hygienist. I have been practicing for 9 yrs. I have never had a hard time finding a job. As for getting accepted for DH school you have to have good grades and it seems that you do. In regards to being a male would give an advantage for admission, I do not think so, because I saw a number of males apply and get turned down. It is not a disadvantage but its not like if your a male with a 3.0 gpa you are going to be admitted because of your gender. It is all about good grades and extra cur. I feel that at your age you should be ok with dental hygiene for a while. I think at some point you will want to do more because you may feel limited. The thing I keep thinking about is when I am fifty yrs old would I be as heirable as I am now?

 

[RDH]

oh by the way at least back when I applied, admission to dh school was very competitive. I do not think things have changed much since then because I work with dental assistants who are interested in dh and say it is still competitive! good luck and if you have an questions email me at [email protected]

 

[Jman1984]

I'm a male hygienist and I can tell you acceptance into the program has nothing to do with gender. Make sure you have a competitive GPA and your good to go. One thing I can say is that more men are entering the hygiene field, in my class there was one other guy...and every consecutive class after ours has had one or more men. I had no problem finding a job and actually had several job offers that I had to turn down. However, you will find that there are times when patients...particularly males...do not and will not be seen by a male hygienist. I always have fun pointing out to them that they see a male dentist!?!?!? What's the difference? Obviously to them it's a big difference and yet they can't explain.

 

[Vicviper]

There is one guy who just started in the Hygiene program at Pitt, and I'm pretty sure he was straight out of high school. And hey, being the one guy in a class of 40 isn't necessarily the wost thing in the world, hehe 🙂.

But yeah, as other's have said, it is an amazing profession, and I don't know why it's not considered nearly as often as say nursing - much better hours, comperable pay, plus you're not on your feet all day!

Good luck, and remember that there are hygiene programs other than the ones at dental schools - the community college I went to, and most of the others in the area all had both RDA and RDH programs.

 

[RDH]

However, you will find that there are times when patients...particularly males...do not and will not be seen by a male hygienist. I always have fun pointing out to them that they see a male dentist!?!?!? What's the difference? Obviously to them it's a big difference and yet they can't explain. [/QUOTE]

I could say that I have never had a problem with that in the past nine yrs. Some patients automatically assume you are a dentist and I have to tell them otherwise, and some do not even know the difference. The main thing is how you present yourself to the patient and if your treatment is somewhat painless or comparable to the other female hygienists that they have seen. In the office I work for we have four hygienists and at this time I am the only male and I could tell you that most patients request my services. I am not trying to brag but I am just trying to help.

 

[Astros1fan]

I could say that I have never had a problem with that in the past nine yrs. Some patients automatically assume you are a dentist and I have to tell them otherwise, and some do not even know the difference. The main thing is how you present yourself to the patient and if your treatment is somewhat painless or comparable to the other female hygienists that they have seen. In the office I work for we have four hygienists and at this time I am the only male and I could tell you that most patients request my services. I am not trying to brag but I am just trying to help.[/QUOTE]

Crap four hygienists!!!😱 Now that's a proficient recall system.

 

[schrizto]

However, you will find that there are times when patients...particularly males...do not and will not be seen by a male hygienist.

Why would that be? 😕

 

[joonkimdds]

It's not hard getting into dental hygiene school. The hard part, in my opinion, will by finding a job after graduting.

I agree.
I shadowed 2 general dentists and none of them had dental hygienist.
Both of them said the following
-dental hyginists want about $50~80 per hr. This means they need to do cleaning twice per hr to make it fair for dentists. 30 min isn't enough for cleaning. Thus they don't want hygienist.

The funny thing is about 80% of work i shadowed were cleaning done by dentists themselves so unless some states let dental hyginist run their own office, it's highly unlikely that dentists would hire dental hygienists.

Also I read somewhere that it's against the law to have more than 2 hygienist in one office in VA.

But I thought about becoming a hygienist until last yr (I am a male).
Let me tell ya, being the only male out of 20~ more isn't bad at all 🙂
I was the only guy who played the flute in my band surrounded by 20 female flute players 😀

 

[saDDS]

I have never been to an office that did not have hygiene..that seems strange to me.

 

[doc3232]

I don't understand why any male patient will not be seen by a male hygienist.
Physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist...the list goes on. Why is a hygienist different...
Someone please explain.