Skills
Dental Hygienist Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in dental hygienists, and how to build and show them.
Dental Hygienists need technical skills such as periodontal assessment and charting, scaling and root planing, and dental radiography, plus people skills like gentle, reassuring manner and manual dexterity. They also use tools such as Periodontal probes and explorers and Scalers and curettes.
Technical (hard) skills
- Periodontal assessment and charting
- Scaling and root planing
- Dental radiography
- Local anesthesia (where permitted)
- Infection control
- Patient education
People (soft) skills
- Gentle, reassuring manner
- Manual dexterity
- Attention to detail
- Clear communication
Tools, equipment and technology
- Periodontal probes and explorers
- Scalers and curettes
- Ultrasonic scalers
- Digital X-ray sensors
- Intraoral cameras
- Practice management software such as Dentrix or Eaglesoft
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how dental hygienists put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Periodontal assessment and charting” and “Scaling and root planing.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “gentle, reassuring manner,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as State dental hygiene license (RDH) near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our dental hygienist glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Dental Hygienist training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.