Male Dental Hygienist

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AJYMERCED

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I was thinking of becoming a Dental hygienist. I am a guy and have never seen a male hygienist. Does gender play a role in this job? How many male hygienist are out there?
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I would say that it's a female-dominated career; however I did meet one male who was studying to become one.

Good luck to you.
 
There's always at least 1 guy in the Dental Hygiene program here at Pitt. It is a female dominated field for sure, but it doesn't mean you can't be a part of it. I've asked professors about this at school in the past, and I'd say that there's about a 90% chance that unless otherwise explicitly told, patients will think you're a dentist anyways, so it shouldn't make much of a difference.
 
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AJYMERCED said:
I was thinking of becoming a Dental hygienist. I am a guy and have never seen a male hygienist. Does gender play a role in this job? How many male hygienist are out there?
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I have met several male hygienists and they seem very happy in their career choice...they were all practicing on the west coast where pay is great and they have expanded duties. 👍
 
I'm a male hygienist. Getting a job was the most difficult part. I think most dentists worry how the patients will react, and it seems like a lot of male dentists don't want another man around. Most patients do think I'm just another dentist. Some of the male patients have acted a little wierd towards it, but the females seem to like it. Many of them request me over our other female hygienists. It's an easy job, and I like it, but I just can't picture a 45+ year old man cleaning teeth. Luckily I'll be starting dental school in august so I'll never have to worry about that! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask away.
 
After I quit my career in sales, I became a nursing assistant so that I could get patient experience for medical school. Obviously, I am not aimed towards medical school anymore, but I still work as a nursing assistant. I guarantee that being a nursing assistant is as female dominated or even moreso than being a hygienist.

Some things I have come to realize, as long as you aren't wiping the patient's ass, they don't care if you are male or female. Even then, only 1 in a 100 cares!

If anything, they think that as a man, you chose this career and must really love it/be good at it!

Most women prefer me over a female counterpart,

And the only men who don't want me are the pervs that want a young woman scrubbing their junk (just fine with me, let someone else tend to their man parts!!).

Overall, in the eyes of the patient I have found that I am more unique and respected because of being in a female dominated industry...and because of this I am valuable. I recently took a job as a young man's personal assistant that pays double of what any other nursing assistant I know makes (it is more than what RN's made at my previous job!).





All this to say, I think being a male in a female dominated career has downsides, but likely has more upsides!
 
i think we have 4-5 males out of 70-80 DH students. i don't really know what you mean by whether it plays a role in the profession. i guess if you're not comfortable being a male in a predominantly female profession it does. i can see how male dentists might be turned off to male hygienists, but graduating dentists are 50/50 male/female so i would think you'd be no worse off.
 
I was thinking about getting a bachelors in DH before dental school. When I was looking for more info about the program, I found the class picture from like the past 5 years and there was not one guy. I guess they wanted me to be the first one lol

I would say its a female dominated career, but that may be changing in the years to come( I got into my schools hygiene program with a pretty low GPA considering how competitive it is)

I never really thought of it that much because my hygienist growing up was a guy and always talked sports, hunting/fishing and whatnot with me
 
Please! Go into hygiene! I hate being in a profession that is so monochromatic. In 2007 there was a survey in Washington that said RDHs were 95% female and 98% white. Ick!
 
SeattleRDH said:
Please! Go into hygiene! I hate being in a profession that is so monochromatic. In 2007 there was a survey in Washington that said RDHs were 95% female and 98% white. Ick!
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Those darn white people!!!
 
Vicviper said:
There's always at least 1 guy in the Dental Hygiene program here at Pitt. It is a female dominated field for sure, but it doesn't mean you can't be a part of it. I've asked professors about this at school in the past, and I'd say that there's about a 90% chance that unless otherwise explicitly told, patients will think you're a dentist anyways, so it shouldn't make much of a difference.
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Wtf it's md/dmd
 
RONDIZZLE27 said:
I was thinking about getting a bachelors in DH before dental school. When I was looking for more info about the program, I found the class picture from like the past 5 years and there was not one guy. I guess they wanted me to be the first one lol

I would say its a female dominated career, but that may be changing in the years to come( I got into my schools hygiene program with a pretty low GPA considering how competitive it is)

I never really thought of it that much because my hygienist growing up was a guy and always talked sports, hunting/fishing and whatnot with me
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Don't do it it's horrible! It's a waste, you'll end up being a dentist!
 
sacapuntas said:
After I quit my career in sales, I became a nursing assistant so that I could get patient experience for medical school. Obviously, I am not aimed towards medical school anymore, but I still work as a nursing assistant. I guarantee that being a nursing assistant is as female dominated or even moreso than being a hygienist.

Some things I have come to realize, as long as you aren't wiping the patient's ass, they don't care if you are male or female. Even then, only 1 in a 100 cares!

If anything, they think that as a man, you chose this career and must really love it/be good at it!

Most women prefer me over a female counterpart,

And the only men who don't want me are the pervs that want a young woman scrubbing their junk (just fine with me, let someone else tend to their man parts!!).





Overall, in the eyes of the patient I have found that I am more unique and respected because of being in a female dominated industry...and because of this I am valuable. I recently took a job as a young man's personal assistant that pays double of what any other nursing assistant I know makes (it is more than what RN's made at my previous job!).





All this to say, I think being a male in a female dominated career has downsides, but likely has more upsides!
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Then it's not more female dominated! Any way dentistry is old sexist male dentist dominated. All do respect the women aren't dominating ****! This filed is a overly saturated, sexist, limiting AUXILIARY position. This means when things are tuff its the first to go!
 
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