Dental Hygienists

Low Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary
10% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
22.9 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Fits experienced hygienists teaching oral health, anatomy, instrumentation, prevention, patient care, and clinical routines.

Community Health Workers
14% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Higher growth
19.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Transfers prevention counseling, outreach, culturally aware education, screening follow-up, resources, and patient trust.

Medical and Health Services Managers
10% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
22.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses dental office operations, compliance, patient flow, scheduling, documentation, quality metrics, and staff coordination.

Health Education Specialists
20% automation risk | Minimal Risk
13.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Applies oral hygiene counseling, prevention, behavior change, screening outreach, patient materials, and program evaluation.

Training and Development Specialists
19% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Higher growth More jobs
13.8 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Applies patient education, procedure coaching, training materials, demonstrations, feedback, and onboarding for dental products or clinics.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

33% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Show 4 more strengths

Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 156 votes

35% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 33% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Dental Hygienists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Dental Hygienists was $94,260 ($45 per hour).

The median annual wage for Dental Hygienists was 90.4% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Dental Hygienists' job openings is expected to rise 7.0% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 219,070 people employed as 'Dental Hygienists' within the United States.

This represents around 0.14% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 703 people are employed as 'Dental Hygienists'.

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What people are saying (2)

KC (Moderate)
26 Jul 2025 00:28
Wages are higher than fee for cleaning and robots could do the work
Zuzanna (Low)
18 Nov 2023 13:36
As a dental hygienist, I know this job is more complex. The cost of a robot that is able to remove calculus under and above the gum, especially for patients with periodontosis, or providing orthodontic care is too expensive for most dental clinics. Until the cost of that kind of robot becomes affordable, chances are low.
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Job description

Administer oral hygiene care to patients. Assess patient oral hygiene problems or needs and maintain health records. Advise patients on oral health maintenance and disease prevention. May provide advanced care such as providing fluoride treatment or administering topical anesthesia.

O*NET-SOC code: 29-1292.00