Dental hygienists — a post qualification survey

The importance of the Professions Complementary to Dentistry (CPDs) is increasingly recognised and their role in the dental team is being re-evaluated and developed. This paper provides valuable data about one group of CPDs which will assist in the planning process.Anecdotal evidence has previously suggested that poor job satisfaction is prevalent among hygienists and is a cause of a loss of manpower. Objective evidence does not back this up except that some 37% of respondents in this survey reported that they have to work excessively short appointments and that their job is 'repetitive'. More than 80% of the hygienists (all female) in this study reported good job satisfaction and tended to keep up their professional careers at least as much as female dentists.Hygienists suffer from a lack of access to continuing professional education, which could be alleviated by better funding for local courses and by the development of distance learning packages.