In these times I guess it's easy to start thinking about a switch when your just sitting at home.

Wife is wanting to make a move towards being a dental hygienist and all we are seeing is that she only needs an AA for it. Anyone in the forum have a wife that does this?

Are online AAs just as good? If so which are the best one to attend to help ensure a job?

What's the path for a new graduate and what's the best path to ensure that job?

We have kids and we are thinking online will be the best avenue but I hate the stigma that online degrees have attached to them. Would this be so for DH degrees?

Just trying to get overall advice from another to make the best decisions.

AgOil55 said:

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In these times I guess it's easy to start thinking about a switch when your just sitting at home.

Wife is wanting to make a move towards being a dental hygienist and all we are seeing is that she only needs an AA for it. Anyone in the forum have a wife that does this?

Are online AAs just as good? If so which are the best one to attend to help ensure a job?

What's the path for a new graduate and what's the best path to ensure that job?

We have kids and we are thinking online will be the best avenue but I hate the stigma that online degrees have attached to them. Would this be so for DH degrees?

Just trying to get overall advice from another to make the best decisions.

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Are you in a large city like DFW, Houston, or San Antonio? How long does the traditional degree take?

Are you asking if she needs only an AA degree to apply to a dental hygiene course of instruction? That might be the pre-requisite to be accepted to a program.

My wife was going to advance her RDA designation... but the 2-year program was full time. That didn't align with her working full time, so she opted to not pursue that effort.

Her hygienist friends earn from $500 a day contracting themselves out to dental providers. The course in which she was looking at was, if correctly I remember, $50K+ at Loma Linda. Take a look at the Loma Linda dental school program for hygienists... and that should give you a solid idea of the time and investment (time and money) required.

Best wishes.

She's going to need a lot more than that to become a hygienist. Depending upon the area you're in we can make some recommendations on where to go. My wife went to Baylor College of Dentistry, part of A&M HSC, in Dallas.

My wife has been a DH for 15 years and is now desperate to get out. The job being hell on her body is at the top of the list of a myriad of reasons. She makes decent pay for her hours but she is near the top of what is being offered now. She is pediatric as well.

Curious what the other reasons are? My wife has already had to have hand surgery due to the toll it took on them.

Change in how hygienists are viewed and treated by the dentists. She started when there were only a few schools in Texas so the market wasn't saturated. Now the supply is high and it is easy to find replacements. She has quite a few friends spread through different cities and they all discuss this aspect.

Hours are changing considerably. She had the luxury of working at a location that was 7:30-2:30 Monday thru Thursday because the dentist had children and wanted to spend time with them. Well that dentist sold her practice and now the hours are like most job. She also temps quite often for extra money and many practices now work till 6 with a few saturdays a month as well.

Some of it is also just the office she is in. This will sound awful but it is an office full of women(minus the dentist) and a lot of the disagreements she tells me go on in the office lead to me rolling my eyes.

She has arthritis in her fingers and wrist as well as neck problems. I feel awful when I see her struggling some mornings just to get going.

I'll add, if something happens with the kids(elementary age) then I am usually the one that has to handle it which I am fine with but she hates. It is really tough for her to get away due to having patients scheduled.

She is also a bit of a germophobe and that is a very at risk position so this whole thing going on right now isn't helping her desire to return if the office reopens.

Sorry, gave you a bunch.

I definitely get all of that. Mine is staying home with the kids right now until the youngest gets to elementary school age. She definitely had her share of interesting stories on office politics. It also seems like many dentists are seeking outside consultants on how to run their business and that usually comes down to less time for patients which upsets her as well as high pressure up selling.

Exactly. Two consulting firms have been hired at hers and it is almost turning into a mill. She loves working with kids and it is more about how many patients can they churn thru.