National Dental Hygienist Week: Key Facts & Celebration Tips

Key Takeaways

• National Dental Hygienist Appreciation Week takes place in the second week of April each year.

• Dental hygienists are a valuable part of a dental practice, ensuring that patients are happy and healthy while also playing an important role in patient retention.

• This week is a chance to spotlight dental hygienists and highlight the essential work they do to support a dental practice and deliver care to their patients.

• Practices can show appreciation for their dental hygienists by posting on social media, engaging patients in the celebration, and offering professional growth opportunities for their team to extend the value beyond this one week.

Showing Appreciation for Dental Hygienists

National Dental Hygienist Week is celebrated during the second week of April each year. The 7-day long occasion provides a once-a-year special opportunity for practices to recognize and show appreciation for their dental hygienists. Hygienists are a foundational element to a successful dental practice, providing exceptional patient care while ensuring they understand the value of oral hygiene.

Practices should consider celebrating their dental hygienists and using National Dental Hygienist Week as a chance to highlight the hard work and dedication they offer to the practice. From spotlighting your staff members on social media to asking patients for notes to express their appreciation, there are many ways you can make your hygienists feel valued.

Why Dental Hygienists Are Essential to Your Practice

Dental hygienists are an invaluable part of any dental practice, ensuring that patients receive quality care and detailed instruction on how to manage their oral health. From supporting your dental team to keeping your patients happy and healthy, these professionals are fundamental to smooth operations.

Dental hygienists make the lives of your dentists simpler by providing top-notch preventive care to patients and offering direct education on healthy oral hygiene habits. With their role in serving patients, hygienists enhance your efficiency and workflow by supporting dentists in their tasks. Altogether, a friendly hygienist plays a huge part in leaving a positive impression on your patients so they return to your practice.

Fun Facts About Dental Hygienists

The concept of a dental hygienist specifically geared towards cleaning teeth originated in 1906, which, in the grand scheme of human history, is pretty recent. Irene Newman became the first hygienist dedicated to scaling and polishing teeth in a time where the idea of preventative dentistry was becoming more commonplace. Still, daily tooth brushing wasn’t even a mainstream habit until the 1950s.

Today, there are about 214,100 dental hygienists in the United States. With a nationwide population of 340 million people to support, this group of hygienists is incredibly important.

Dental hygienists also have an integral role in supporting their patients’ overall health. Dental hygiene helps reduce the risk of other diseases caused or worsened by infection or inflammation, like heart disease and diabetes.

Studies show that dental hygienists may even have a role in helping job interview performance. This study shows that dental hygiene has a strong psychological impact, as oral health affects overall confidence and self-esteem.

With the amount of weight that they shoulder on a daily basis to promote the overall health of their patients, dental hygienists deserve immense appreciation.

How Practices Can Celebrate Dental Hygienist Week

Practices can take a variety of steps to celebrate their dental hygiene team depending on the personality and preferences of their staff. The following are some excellent ways to celebrate National Dental Hygienist Week.

Recognizing Your Hygienists

Celebrating your team doesn’t have to be a tall task. There are many small and simple yet meaningful ways to show appreciation to your dental hygienists.

Consider these options as tokens of recognition:

• Thank you notes
• Small gifts like a basket with snacks or gift cards
• A special team lunch ordered from a favorite restaurant
• Office decorations that center your hygienists

In addition to these little tokens of appreciation, consider putting that appreciation front and center for patients to see as well. Highlight your team’s contributions in office newsletters or on your social media page so that everyone connected to your practice can see truly how impactful your hygiene team is.

Engaging Patients in the Celebration

Because hygienists are crucial to providing direct care to patients, there’s a strong chance you have patients with plenty of positive things to say, but they’re likely not too familiar with National Dental Hygienist Week. By engaging patients in the celebration, you can create a whole new opportunity to make your hygiene team light up.

The following are some ways to drive patient awareness and get them involved:

• Encouraging patients to express their gratitude with handwritten notes in the waiting room
• Offering special promotions or giveaways tied to oral health awareness
• Doing a callout on social media or your email newsletter requesting patient comments

You might even consider holding an event in-office to recognize the team even further so that patients who come in throughout the week see the celebration front and center and can be a part of it as well.

Supporting Career Growth and Well-Being

National Dental Hygienist Week is a great excuse to invest some extra support and love into your dental hygiene team by looking at the bigger picture. You know your team best, so while some small tokens of appreciation will be great for leaving employees feeling appreciated, other hygienists may appreciate more tangible action they can take beyond a single week in the form of professional development.

Consider some of the following ways career growth opportunities can be used as an appreciation tool:

• Spotlighting employees on LinkedIn, allowing them the chance to have the recognition in their professional portfolio
• Creating a positive work environment that values and appreciates hygienists year-round
• Investing in opportunities for continuing education and professional development for hygienists

Although National Dental Hygienist Week is a great way to give your team some extra appreciation, the above tips are valuable for fostering an environment that leaves your team feeling valued all year long.

Celebrating Hygienists Through Social Media & Community Engagement

Celebrating your hygienists through social media and community engagement practices is a great chance to prove your appreciation and offer recognition. Throw in the hashtag #DentalHygienistWeek to celebrate your team and drive local recognition of the amazing work that they do. Consider showing patient testimonials praising your hygiene team or behind-the-scenes content of your team working hard so they can get more recognition..

Although the primary purpose of this week is to appreciate your hygienists, it also is a great way to demonstrate the value of your practice to your prospective clientele. Spotlighting your hygienists on social media and engaging the community demonstrates the exceptional staff that make your office great and worth a visit.

By showing that you have a hardworking team that provides value and support to your patients, you’re likely to get more patients scheduled. Not to mention, highlighting your team’s success keeps the importance of oral health top of mind for potential patients and demonstrates the ability of your team to provide that.

Strengthen Your Practice’s Culture with Toothio

National Dental Hygienist Week is a great opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of your team and ensure they feel appreciated. To show appreciation for their dental hygienists, practices can take steps like highlighting their staff to patients and providing direct recognition to the team members.

If your practice has an open shift and you are looking for a skilled dental hygienist, turn to Toothio. Our innovative staffing platform connects practices to skilled, seasoned, and vetted professionals ready to fill open shifts and keep the office’s operations running smoothly. Simply make an account and start posting shifts as needed.

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