Introduction
Setting the right health-related career goals requires identifying the professional field that causes the greatest degree of fascination. Due to requiring honesty and the analysis of the initial assumptions’ feasibility and potential in the long-term perspective, self-exploration linked with career field choices has never been an easy process to complete. In this essay, I justify my decision to choose dental hygiene as a profession with reference to experience-based and security-focused factors and explain the profession’s meanings, including promoting happiness and the culture of self-care.
Dental Hygiene: The Reasons for Selecting the Field
The various reasons that have informed my decision could be divided into two large groups, with the first set of factors incorporating some personal or experience-related considerations. A personal history of teeth issues in childhood, including hypersensitivity, tooth decay from high sugar intake, and plaque accumulation, made dental visits and receiving patient education common occurrences in my life before adolescence. Instead of instilling any fears, these experiences have filled me with an inspiration to address dental exacerbation early by providing high-quality preventive dental care and assisting others in maintaining good oral health habits. Interestingly, as per dentistry students’ career choice motivation profiles, over 20% of dental hygienists cite inspiration from their own dental experiences as the key rationale for choice (Shaikh & Inglehart, 2018). Increases in the quality of life achieved due to post-treatment self-care recommendations from dental hygienists, including dietary guidance, have been strong enough to make me willing to continue their mission.
The second type of motivators refers to factors that are more pragmatic in nature, including job security, demand, and having an appropriate skill set to succeed in the field. Despite the advancements in oral care products for clients with dissimilar need profiles and such products’ affordability, the job outlook for the profession is still positive, adding to my determination to enter the field. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022) predicts the change in employment between 2020 and 2030 to exceed 10% for the dental hygiene field, which is higher than the average growth rate for all occupations. These security and demand projections add to the possibility of finding stable employment and having a range of potential employers to choose from, resulting in optimal job satisfaction. Another decision-making factor pertains to the presence of adequate skills that will aid in fulfilling the dental hygienist’s responsibilities with both pediatric and adult clients. My key competencies relevant to the profession include manual dexterity, fine motor skills, and eye-hand coordination. Finally, certain psychological assets, for instance, attention to detail in problem-solving and cooperation/communication skills, could facilitate ongoing learning in my case.
The Meaning of Dental Hygiene and a Discussion of the Profession’s Aspects
Regarding the personal meaning of dental hygiene, my definition of the field’s importance would stress the profession’s links to public health, oral cavity disease prevention, and fighting the culture of dental neglect. In other words, although engagement in diagnostic and cleaning procedures is paramount, in my perception, dental hygiene is about working with a culturally diverse clientele’s health-related mindsets. From my perspective, along with consisting of safe and effective care based on the client’s actual health condition, each dental hygiene visit should be perceived as an opportunity for spreading the philosophies of self-care. With an emphasis on oral health, professionals should make the clients recognize that health is a finite resource. Every early sign of pathological processes in the mouth that gets ignored might progress into serious concerns years later, sometimes even leading to life-threatening systemic diseases starting in the oral cavity (Coppola et al., 2022). Therefore, I see efforts to raise patients’ awareness of dental health from the systems-level perspective and the need for early intervention in case of concerns as the profession’s critical meaning.
At an individual level, aside from disease prevention, I also see the profession’s aspects, ranging from the initial assessment to patient education, as endeavors to prevent clients’ psychological discomfort from aesthetic flaws. Dental hygienists can engage in assessments, documentation, decision-making peculiar to preventative care, oral cancer screening, administering local anesthetics, collaborating with dentists, and providing nutrition and oral hygiene counseling to diverse populations (Coppola et al., 2022). In addition to tooth loss prevention, these dimensions of practice, despite being different in nature and the involved skills, aid in addressing certain visible flaws and supporting individuals’ dental health without invasive treatments. By means of aesthetic improvements, including tartar and stain removal, professionals in the field can help their patients to feel more attractive and cope with some of the barriers to expressing emotions. In certain cases, a more pleasant-looking smile can even change a person’s life and create more opportunities for successful personal and professional relationships, making the effects of dental hygienists’ work all-encompassing. With that in mind, these specialists promote holistic well-being by means of administering the right preventative interventions.
Conclusion
To sum up, my career decision is rooted in the idealistic goals of maximizing happiness and some more utilitarian arguments, including the profession’s alignment with my assets and security-focused expectations. The selected career option’s meanings for public health, shifts in people’s attitudes to health, and mental well-being have also been influential in personal decision-making. Hopefully, these attitudes will support me in developing specialized skills and seeking professional excellence.
References
Coppola, N., Rivieccio, I., Blasi, A., Ferrigno, R., Baldares, S., Mignogna, M. D., & Leuci, S. (2022). Current knowledge, attitude and practice among dental hygienists in oral cancer awareness: Systematic review. International Journal of Dental Hygiene, 20(2), 249-261.
Shaikh, M. A., & Inglehart, M. R. (2018). Dental and dental hygiene students’ career choice motivations in 2009–17: A mixed methods approach. Journal of Dental Education, 82(8), 848-856.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022). Dental hygienists: Summary.