Salaries / Dental Hygienist
Healthcare · SOC 29-1292
Dental Hygienist salary
Dental hygienists clean teeth, examine patients for oral disease, and educate them on oral health, usually in dental offices.
Median annual
$87,000
Median hourly
$41.80
Typical range
$65,000 to $109,000
Source: National estimate (to be replaced by live BLS data). Figures are gross pay and vary by location, employer, and experience.
The pay range, visually.
Low end (about the 10th percentile), median, and high end (about the 90th percentile).
By state
State figures are estimates derived from the national median and a state wage index, shown to give a rough sense of local differences.
Your skills are a business
Ideas we have for people in healthcare.
The same experience that earns a paycheck as a dental hygienist can start a business. Here are real ideas from our marketplace that fit this field.
Start a Dental Therapy Practice
Practice as a mid-level dental provider delivering fillings, extractions of certain teeth, and preventive care in states that license dental therapists, bringing care to communities dentists do not reach.
Start a Mobile Dentistry Service
Bring dental care to nursing homes, schools, and workplaces with portable equipment or a fitted van, billing insurance and facilities.
Become an Independent Medical and Dental Sales Rep
Sell devices, supplies, and equipment to clinics, hospitals, and dental practices. Medical sales is one of the most respected, highest-earning sales careers, and independent rep paths exist.
Open a Pediatric Dental Practice
Build a dental practice exclusively for children, where fear-free experience design, parent trust, and broad child dental coverage create one of dentistry's most loyal and referral-rich niches.
You could hire dental hygienists, not just be one.
We have a staffing calculator to price the work and a full course on how to start a staffing agency, so you can turn a field you already know into a business that puts other people to work.