Dental Hygienist
By Ken Mosier
For What2Be
WHO AM I?
Name: Sheranita Hemphill
Title: Registered Dental Hygienist, professor of dental hygiene
Affiliation: Sinclair Community College
Education: Associate degree, Sinclair Community College, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, University of Dayton, master’s degree, Ohio State University, working on doctorate, Ohio University
WHAT’S 2 LIKE ABOUT DENTAL HYGIENE?
• Excellent employment prospects
• Excellent earnings
• A great deal of autonomy in your work
• Able to see the outcomes of our work
WHAT’S NOT 2 LIKE?
• Public perception that dental assistants and hygienists are the same
• Lack of reciprocity between states may mean retaking exams when moving
Quote: “(Dental hygienists) are the best educators in the world in terms of oral health.”
A common perception of a dental hygienist is that they clean teeth and hand you a toothbrush at the end of your appointment.
That’s not the entire story, according to Professor Sheranita Hemphill of Sinclair Community College’s Dental Hygienist program.
“In order to practice as a dental hygienist, you have to have a degree from an accredited school, you have to have a state license, you have to take a national examination and sometimes, in some states, you have to take what we call a practical or regional examination,” Hemphill said. “The regional exam is a hands-on practical clinical situation where you actually work on patients and some non-biased judges from the dental hygiene profession come in and they evaluate your work.”
The regional exam is not currently required to practice in Ohio but that situation could change in the near future. Hemphill warned potential students to be certain that the school is accredited — students from unaccredited schools are not allowed to take the state exam.
Dental hygienists are a separate profession from dental assistants and do much more than just scrape plaque off teeth.
“First of all, a dental hygienist can assume several roles,” Hemphill said. “They examine the patient’s head and neck region. They examine for cancer — oral cancer screening and they remove deposits from teeth. They examine the patient’s oral cavities or anything that is unusual.
“We assess the patient’s oral hygiene status. In other words, we use different types of instruments (and equipment) to gauge where each individual patient is on the oral hygiene scale and we can asses the presence or absence of gum diseases or abnormalities. We are educators — preventative educators.”
Sinclair’s program has a large clinic where advanced students get to practice their skills on real patients — some students, faculty and staff of the college itself and the general public. There is also a radiology lab.
“They are taught how to take radiographs (X-rays) and they are taught how to polish teeth and operate a myriad of tools and equipment,” Hemphill explained. “In the pre-clinical training, they learn how to do things as simple as adjusting the overhead light to actually learning how to use the instruments. That is very detailed work, and it takes at least two quarters. We actually teach them how to sit and how to hold each and every instrument, as they are held differently based on their design.”
Hemphill said that, in some states, dental hygienists can administer the local anesthetic (Ohio is considering allowing that) and in some others, they can fill teeth.
“They can actually put the restorative material into the prepped tooth,” she said. “The doctor has to drill to prep the tooth but then the hygienist can actually fill the tooth.”
Job opportunities are plentiful. The majority of dental hygienists work in private practice, but opportunities exist in several other arenas, including public health and teaching for those with advanced degrees.
Hemphill said that her original intention was to become a physician and was enrolled at Wright State University. Then her daughter was born.
“I recognized that, in order to be a good doctor, you are working all the time and other people are raising your children.”
She thought about the lost time with her daughter and started perusing the Allied Health programs at Sinclair. She selected the dental hygiene program, graduated and became a Registered Dental Hygienist. She has since earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton, a master’s degree from UD, a second master’s degree from The Ohio State University and is pursuing her doctorate from Ohio University.
