# Dental Hygienists

> 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.

- Code: 29-1292.00 (O*NET-SOC; SOC 2018 29-1292)
- Family: [Healthcare Practitioners](https://foundation.org.ai/occupations#family-29), one of its 96 occupations
- Tasks: 16 tasks (14 core and 2 supplemental)
- Page: https://foundation.org.ai/occupations/29-1292.00
- JSON: https://foundation.org.ai/data/tasks/29-1292.00.json

## What the work is made of

1. Record and review patient medical histories.  
   Core task · Task 18536 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
2. Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease.  
   Core task · Task 417 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
3. Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.  
   Core task · Task 421 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
4. Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments.  
   Core task · Task 416 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
5. Provide clinical services or health education to improve and maintain the oral health of patients or the general public.  
   Core task · Task 18537 · Rated by 52 people who do the job, August 2021
6. Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist.  
   Core task · Task 418 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
7. Expose and develop x-ray film.  
   Core task · Task 422 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
8. Attend continuing education courses to maintain or update skills.  
   Core task · Task 23921 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
9. Apply fluorides or other cavity preventing agents to arrest dental decay.  
   Core task · Task 420 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
10. Maintain dental equipment and sharpen and sterilize dental instruments.  
   Core task · Task 18538 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
11. Maintain patient recall system.  
   Core task · Task 18539 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
12. Feel lymph nodes under patient's chin to detect swelling or tenderness that could indicate presence of oral cancer.  
   Core task · Task 419 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
13. Administer local anesthetic agents.  
   Core task · Task 427 · Rated by 54 people who do the job, August 2021
14. Remove excess cement from coronal surfaces of teeth.  
   Core task · Task 424 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
15. Conduct dental health clinics for community groups to augment services of dentist.  
   Supplemental task · Task 428 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021
16. Make impressions for study casts.  
   Supplemental task · Task 425 · Rated by 53 people who do the job, August 2021

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## Where this comes from

Quoted from O*NET 29.0, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, under CC BY 4.0: free to copy and reuse, with credit. Nothing on this page is written by the Org.AI Foundation.
