
Why Should We Hire You? 10+ Answers to a Tough Interview Question
Why should we hire you? This is a tough but common interview question. Learn how to ace the answer with our complete guide and sample answers.
Ready to clean the mouths of dental patients as if you’re in Victorian England and they just said a bad word? This guide shows you how to write the best dental hygiene resume ever.
Phillip Taylor
NYS Licensed & Certified Dental Hygienist
phillip.taylor@gmail.com
(347) 888-9517
linkedin.com/in/philliptaylor
Friendly and effective dental hygienist with over 3 years performing oral hygiene procedures and assessing oral health. NYS licensed and certified. Reduced patient stress by 50% through alternative chair-side procedures. Seeking to continue building dental skills by growing with Isthmus Dental as the lead dental hygienist.
Dental Hygienist
May 2017–June 2019
Happy Smiles, Astoria, NY
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievements
Junior Dental Hygienist
April 2016–May 2017
White Chompers Associates, New York, NY
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities
Key Achievements
Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene
New York University, New York, NY
Completion: 2016
Relevant Coursework: Periodontics, Dental Hygiene Procedures, Advanced Oral Hygiene, Dentistry & Public Health, Pharmacology, Dental Materials, History of Dental Health.
Associate in Applied Science in Dental Hygiene
New York University, New York, NY
Completion: 2014
Relevant Coursework: Oral Anatomy, Principles of Dental Hygiene, Chemistry for Allied Health, General & Oral Pathology, Oral Embryology & Histology, Oral Communications, Pain Management, Radiology, Anatomy & Physiology.
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Sample Dental Hygiene Resume—See more templates and create your resume here.
Here are a few other resume examples related to dental hygiene:
Above was our version of the perfect dental hygiene resume example.
Time to cut your teeth on your own—
Here’s how to write a resume for dental hygienist jobs:
You’ve got the skills, experience, and education to be an award-winning dental hygienist.
But none of that matters—
If you don’t format your resume in a way that keeps the dental office partner interested.
Follow these dental hygiene resume format rules:
Pro Tip: Should you send your resume in PDF or Word format? Unless the dental job ad requests one specifically as a Microsoft Word doc, PDF is always the better choice.
To start the written portion of your dental hygiene application, you need a compelling professional profile at the top.
Also called dental hygiene resume objectives or summaries, these are intro paragraphs of around 3–4 sentences, an elevator pitch, if you will. They give dental office managers insight into your oral hygiene experience and dental skills.
Which one to use?
A resume summary statement is for veteran dental hygienists. Here, you “sum up” your previous dental hygiene job experience and skills.
A resume objective statement is for newbies and those fresh out of dental school. With this one, you give your career goals in dentistry to replace your lack of experience.
Whichever one you use, give a key numbered accomplishment from your past to prove you’re a top candidate.
Pro Tip: Your resume objective or summary statement goes at the top of your resume right under the contact information. However, write it last. It’s an important statement to write, and this way you can determine what items to mention there as you complete the rest of your resume.
Whether you’ll work at a small local dental practice or a large national chain, know how to describe work experience on a resume.
So—
Here’s how to add your dental hygienist job description to a resume:
Pro Tip: Know how to tailor a resume to a job posting. Dentist employers hate generic resumes as much as the rest of them.
One of the requirements for dental hygienist jobs is that they complete a dental hygiene specialized program, associate degree, or bachelor’s degree.
So—
Don’t go easy on your resume educational background.
Here’s how to nail the academic section on a resume for dental hygiene:
Pro Tip: Have a dental hygiene externship to add to your resume? Add it here in your education section, since it was part of your studies, rather than in your work experience section.
Dental hygiene jobs will grow by 20% between 2016 and 2026 in the United States, alone.
That’s 41,000 new candidates fighting for your job.
So—
Show them you’ve got what it takes with the best dental hygienist skills resume section.
Here are several soft skills and hard skills you'll need as a dental hygienist:
But—
Instead of copying those skills right into your dental hygiene resume:
Pro Tip: Dental care is changing. By 2040, researchers say that dentistry will probably become more integrated with general medical care. So, if you have medical skills outside of dentistry, it could benefit your chances at scoring the dental hygiene job interview.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Every dental hygiene candidate has those above sections, as they should.
However—
It means you won’t be so unique if that’s all you include.
So, stand out from the rest of them by adding extra dental hygiene resume sections.
Here are a few ideal choices on a resume for dental hygiene jobs:
Are cover letters important for dental hygiene jobs?
Absolutely.
Most employers want a resume, going so far as saying they’ll reject an application missing one for that reason alone.
Here’s how to write a cover letter for dental hygienist jobs that’ll put a smile on their face:
Also, check out our posts on how long should cover letters be, best cover letter tips, and what to include inside a cover letter to really make a winning application.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget that following up on a job application might just be the thing that gets you the call for an interview. Speaking of which, get ready for the big day with our best interview tips!
Got any questions on how to write a dental hygiene resume? Not sure how to talk up your dental skills, required certifications, or hygienic achievements? Get at us in the comments below, and thanks for reading!
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