Traveling Dental Hygienist: Salary Guide & What to Expect

Key Takeaways

• A traveling dental hygienist has a unique role in providing valuable dental care while also enjoying unique flexibility and mobility in their role.

• Traveling dental hygienists may work in environments like dental practices, community health centers, hospitals, or mobile clinics.

• Working as a traveling hygienist will require advanced organizational skills, commitment to upholding high standards of care, and ongoing adaptability and problem-solving.

• Dental hygienists can utilize a tool like Toothio to find jobs in multiple markets nationwide.

Traveling Dental Hygienist Career Snapshot

A traveling dental hygienist provides oral hygiene treatments to patients at various locations rather than just a single practice. Working as a traveling dental hygienist can be a rewarding career, offering the chance to serve an important need while also providing a valuable opportunity to move around and avoid the potential monotony of a single clinic.

Traveling hygienists may work in various environments, including traveling between multiple dental practices, community health centers, hospitals, and mobile dental units. If you choose to work as a traveling dental hygienist, you will need to be adaptable to varying circumstances, work setups, communities, and more. This guide covers the key considerations that aspiring traveling dental hygienists should keep in mind, including salary expectations, licensing, day-to-day responsibilities, and the pros and cons of the role.

Education, Licensure & Mobility Requirements

A traveling dental hygienist will need to obtain their license just like any other hygienist. This pathway should include completing an accredited dental hygiene program approved by the Commission on Dental Accreditation and then going on to complete the National Board of Dental Hygiene Exam (NBDHE).

Once you have completed the relevant education, you will need to obtain a license in all states where you expect to practice. The key caveat for a traveling dental hygienist is that if you plan on becoming a traveling dental hygienist, you will need to be licensed anywhere you practice, as each state has its own requirements for dental hygienists.

If you are licensed solely in one state, you will only be able to travel within that state. Meanwhile, if you obtain a license in multiple states, then you will be able to travel across state lines and each of these states without issue. Continuing education units (CEUs) may be beneficial for traveling hygienists, as they can be helpful for satisfying additional licensing requirements as you travel across states.

Earning Potential & Compensation Factors

Traveling dental hygienists have a high earning potential given the importance of their role and the necessary services they provide. Dental hygienists in general have a national annual median wage of $94,260, which translates to a mean hourly wage around $45.14. However, traveling hygienists have the potential to earn greater compensation than their non-traveling counterparts, with an average hourly pay around $59.18 because of the often temporary nature of assignments and the high demand for hygienists to fill gaps.

Still, like any job, your earning potential will depend on your location, demand for hygienists, experience level, and availability. Pay may be structured as hourly compensation, salary, or per diem rates.

However, it’s important to consider that traveling also comes with various costs, such as extra housing costs, gas, and wear and tear on a vehicle. That said, if you are traveling under the umbrella of a company or organization, these costs may all be reimbursable.

Daily Responsibilities & Scope of Work

Daily responsibilities for a traveling dental hygienist do not differ too much from those of a typical dental hygienist in terms of clinical work. However, this role does come with the unique challenges of having to adjust your own workflow to varying office procedures, setups, and equipment.

A traveling dental hygienist’s responsibilities include:

• Assessing patient dental health
• Conducting cleaning procedures for patients
• Taking X-rays of patients
• Communicating with the dentist and other team members

As you move through each workday, it will be crucial that you maintain consistent standards of care. There may be limited time to onboard and prepare at each site you travel to, so it’s important that you have an effective system for staying efficient while also ensuring proper attention to detail.

Infection Control & Compliance on the Go

Maintaining infection control standards must be an ongoing consideration for traveling hygienists, as compliance becomes more challenging when frequently changing environments or entering completely unfamiliar settings. It will be crucial to ensure that you continue to follow CDC and OSHA guidelines in each location.

To ensure that each location is up to standard, you may consider carrying your own personal protective equipment (PPE). You should also maintain close communication with each team or location you work with so you are aware of their supply protocols and can align your workflows accordingly. Being proactive and having consistent procedures will allow you to avoid cross-contamination, even in fast-paced environments or temporary setups.

Communication & Patient Engagement

Traveling or not, a strong dental hygienist must be able to communicate and engage with patients of different backgrounds. A traveling hygienist may have a small amount of time to interact with each patient compared to an in-office hygienist, making it crucial to lead with a friendly demeanor and work to build trust and rapport with patients in that limited time.

A skilled hygienist must be able to effectively educate patients with consistency, even in limited interactions. Hygienists should be aware of how to adapt their language and tone to different types of patients of varying backgrounds in order to ensure proper education and treatment while providing a comfortable patient experience.

Collaboration with Diverse Dental Teams

As you travel from dental office to dental office, you will need to be able to collaborate with diverse dental teams with different working styles and different communication styles. It’s important for a traveling hygienist to be a team player. As a traveling hygienist, you must be able to communicate with multiple teams throughout any given week.

Different dental practices can have very different office cultures or communication styles, requiring that you be adaptable and capable of working with many different types of people and personalities. Being able to work with different teams ensures that you can support the continuity of care for patients as they work with the dentist, you as the dental hygienist, and any other specialists on the team.

Adaptability & Problem-Solving in the Field

Although this is important for any hygienist, adaptability and problem-solving are especially important for hygienists who travel. As you move through different locations, practices, and clinics, you will need to adjust for varying situations, workflows, and office setups, which requires a positive attitude and overall composure.

Common challenges may include:

• Having to troubleshoot new equipment you haven’t used before
• Managing unexpected patient needs without long-term case familiarity
• Facing unfamiliar or high-pressure situations and staying resourceful
• Understanding workflows and communication styles in a new dental team

It will be crucial for traveling hygienists to maintain the ability to stay calm in difficult situations and remain on their toes to navigate the unique challenges that could arise. An ability to handle stressful situations or cases of a lack of clarity is key to long-term success as a traveling hygienist.

Organizational & Tech Skills for Travelers

Traveling hygienists will need to be even more organized than a typical hygienist, ensuring that they can maintain their personal documents, daily tasks, and patient records all together. Especially if traveling across multiple states, it will be necessary that hygienists can consistently track assignments, pay, and licensure documents.

Traveling hygienists will also need to be slightly more tech-savvy than a standard hygienist, as they will not need to learn just one dental software system and electronic health record platform but multiple platforms across offices. Consider various mobile tools and apps designed to make things easier for travel professionals. Being able to transition seamlessly between all these tools and apps will be crucial for staying on top of their necessary work.

Professionalism, Ethics & Cultural Sensitivity

It’s important to maintain professionalism, ethics, and cultural awareness across all settings where you work. From legal compliance to the way you communicate with patients, keeping professional standards will be key to your success as a traveling hygienist and for sustaining a positive reputation.

HIPAA compliance is essential regardless of location or office. Maintaining patient privacy should always be a priority. In any assignment, you should be sure to keep patient records safely by using trusted software and a thoughtful organization system.

For a traveling dental hygienist, cultural sensitivity is especially crucial—even traveling between clinics in the same city can mean interacting with a completely different demographic of people. As a direct patient-facing role, dental hygienists should be able to respect diverse patient populations and adapt to various communities.

Career Growth & Long-Term Opportunities

Travel experience is an excellent way to expand your capabilities and refine your skills as a dental hygienist and as an overall professional. Being a traveling hygienist allows you to interact and work with a variety of dentists and other hygienists as you work across varying offices and environments, empowering your career growth and offering several benefits for you and your career growth.

If you do transition into a permanent office role in the future, you’ll likely have a more versatile skill set than your peers given the skills you gain in your experience traveling. Working as a traveling hygienist only expands your network, gives you the ability to learn new skills, and allows you to experience new ideas and best practices from others. This field experience may allow you to move into unique roles in the future, like training, consulting, or education positions.

Find Traveling Dental Hygienist Work with Toothio

A traveling hygienist may enjoy added flexibility and gain unique experience compared to an in-office hygienist. However, they will have to make several adaptations. The education and training requirements are relatively similar, but the day-to-day job responsibilities will look rather different.

Toothio makes it easy for traveling dental hygienists and dental professionals to find consistent and fulfilling on-demand work opportunities across all the areas we serve. Simply create an account with Toothio and start searching for available shifts as soon as you are approved. We work with the most reputable dental practices that post jobs as they arise, empowering you to find quality work opportunities quickly and conveniently.

Sign up with Toothio today and start picking up open shifts on your terms.