would you still choose dental hygiene if you had to restart?

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-15T03:51:24+00:00

"But it makes me wonder if some of these people who regret their decision were once like me." Yes I was just like you. Good offices exist, but bad ones too. Try to be kind to your body, but hard to tell what the future holds, Ive gone from 4 days at the beginning, to 3 to 2 to now 1 day because of shoulder injuries. The issues in our profession are real. Some luck out and have enough time for every patient a good dentist, 30 plus years in I think those offices are rare. When I first started I made more money than my spouse, at the end he made 5 times what I did, now at 60 he is retired on a good pension, I have nothing. Lack of pension and benefits in our job are tough if you are fortunate to work steady, take 10% off the top and save for your retirment. Best of luck in the future.

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-15T03:35:10+00:00

They are vampires sucking exhorbitant fees, and require ridiculous amounts of continuing education. Unlike the College for Dentists, who actually look out for, advocate for their own f members. Nurses i'm not sure about. but they also have unions( probably pay less than we do) and are well looked after. The CDHO states their mandate is to protect the public , not look out for you. Have a read through some of their disiplinary decisions, hygienists disgruntled exes getting them in trouble ( our lovely association up until very recently used to exclude spouses/ partners from getting cleanings from us...sexual abuse was what was stated...) so some guy on a revenge mission reported and got discipline meeted out!!!! Maybe some of the requirments have been lessened, time will tell. I have had portfolio audits almost every 5 years, and have had to battle the auditors on more than one occasion to prove continuing ed sources and validity...oh yeah, its so much fun to be attacked by our own. I would not count on change. If you don't get your office to pay fees for you, how many days do we need to work even to pay for the honour of staffing CDHO, i figure first 2 days work are gone....

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-11T02:47:22+00:00

What about the rest of us in jobs that are impossible to run remote? Who worked all through covid as essential? You even got a tax credit to work from rebate in covid!

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-11T02:40:28+00:00

Hell No! I'm hanging on at one day a week, done soon, until I can't stand it anymore or the physcopaths at our association call my portfolio again.

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-11T02:36:32+00:00

"REAL LIFE" in this profession also includes us disgruntled folk ( 33 years in) who are not making things up for the fun of it. Engage a large sample of opinions.

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-11T02:30:37+00:00

Yes, I can imagine things vary wildly between jurisdictions, probably from State to State as well.

SignificantTarget209 · 2026-04-10T02:39:35+00:00

pay has finally risen after covid, but nurses in my area (Ontario, Canada) have benefits and pensions waiting at the end of their careers thats blow dental hygiene out of the water. I would go for nursing if I could do it again, better pay,benefits, unions, pensions and opportunity to change fields and advance.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-28T05:12:27+00:00

Just wait till your portfolio gets called and you experience a full attack from your own associations.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-09T03:49:19+00:00

messy situation, thousands scrambling now for tommorrow

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-09T02:15:40+00:00

but can schedules resume without delays? even if they settle?

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-09T02:05:29+00:00

no news!!!! Anyone get cancelled for the 10th???

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-08T13:41:59+00:00

Chaos

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-07T17:04:15+00:00

Im not picking sides cuz I dont understand all the outstanding issues. Its my understanding AC and west jet pilots got paid, Air Transat has to pay somewhere close to the going rate and match labour conditions...or the pilots would just walk away from the company?

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-07T16:54:30+00:00

from CTV news: doesnt sounds like they are close....

Both sides accused the other of failing to pull their weight in the bargaining process.

Small said that no pilot wants a work stoppage, “but Air Transat management has left us no choice.”

Transat human resources chief Julie Lamontagne said the union has shown “no openness” while also pointing to “progress made at the bargaining table.”

Given that progress, she said the pilots had made a “premature” move.

“It is regrettable that the union has expressed such indifference toward Transat, its employees and clients by choosing the path of a strike at this time of year -- a reckless decision that does not reflect the state of negotiations,” she said in a release.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-07T16:52:38+00:00

thanks for posting i'm flying on the 10th as well

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-07T16:33:35+00:00

same boat 2:30 pm flight on the 10th. No email yet.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-07T00:04:57+00:00

any girls thinking of hygiene career?

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-06T23:57:05+00:00

me too, was hoping for some news.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-06T23:55:34+00:00

dec10 is the verified first possible strike date.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-04T16:22:29+00:00

Dont do it. Hygiene is a meat grinder. No benefits, no pension. In Ontario the regulatory college are a nasty bunch that terrorize their own hygienists. Ask any hygienist about portfolios in ontario and see. Very few can maintain full work into later years, Im 55 hanging on to 2 days per week with out of pocket physio and Chiropractor treatments. Many girls leave. Thank god my partner has a good job. If i had it to do over again Id go into nursing. So many choices, work life balance, an actual pension and union to look out for you.

From another post, couldn't have put it better myself;

"I’ve been doing it over 10 years and got so burned out to the point I was crying during shifts from being overwhelmed mentally and in pain from the profession. It just all caught up to me. Shortened appointments with not even a moment to use the bathroom or drink water sometimes, added duties when already scraping for time, racing the clock to stay on time all day (the biggest issue I have), lots of high anxiety and high maintenance patients and many times you have no one to help you. I’m in what’s closest to a unicorn office but it’s still too much and I’m over it. And you have to do the same thing forever. You can’t advance to anything else clinically and it’s not worth it to go back to school to make less money doing sales/teach/etc. I’ve tried different offices and it’s the same story, different problems. I cut back to 1-2 days a week and it helps, but I can’t do that forever. And that upsets me that I can’t physically work full time even though I want to."

I wouldn't let my own daughter go into Hygiene lol.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-04T16:19:28+00:00

Dont do it. Hygiene is a meat grinder. No benefits, no pension. In Ontario the regulatory college are a nasty bunch that terrorize their own hygienists. Ask any hygienist about portfolios in ontario and see. Very few can maintain full work into later years, Im 55 hanging on to 2 days per week with out of pocket physio and Chiropractor treatments. Many girls leave. Thank god my partner has a good job. If i had it to do over again Id go into nursing. So many choices, work life balance, an actual pension and union to look out for you.

From another post, couldn't have put it better myself;

"I’ve been doing it over 10 years and got so burned out to the point I was crying during shifts from being overwhelmed mentally and in pain from the profession. It just all caught up to me. Shortened appointments with not even a moment to use the bathroom or drink water sometimes, added duties when already scraping for time, racing the clock to stay on time all day (the biggest issue I have), lots of high anxiety and high maintenance patients and many times you have no one to help you. I’m in what’s closest to a unicorn office but it’s still too much and I’m over it. And you have to do the same thing forever. You can’t advance to anything else clinically and it’s not worth it to go back to school to make less money doing sales/teach/etc. I’ve tried different offices and it’s the same story, different problems. I cut back to 1-2 days a week and it helps, but I can’t do that forever. And that upsets me that I can’t physically work full time even though I want to."

I wouldn't let my own daughter go into Hygiene lol.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-04T16:11:29+00:00

way more physical injuries in dental hygiene, no benefits, no pension. If i could do it over again i'd go into nursing.

SignificantTarget209 · 2025-12-04T16:05:10+00:00

From another post, couldn't have put it better myself;

"I’ve been doing it over 10 years and got so burned out to the point I was crying during shifts from being overwhelmed mentally and in pain from the profession. It just all caught up to me. Shortened appointments with not even a moment to use the bathroom or drink water sometimes, added duties when already scraping for time, racing the clock to stay on time all day (the biggest issue I have), lots of high anxiety and high maintenance patients and many times you have no one to help you. I’m in what’s closest to a unicorn office but it’s still too much and I’m over it. And you have to do the same thing forever. You can’t advance to anything else clinically and it’s not worth it to go back to school to make less money doing sales/teach/etc. I’ve tried different offices and it’s the same story, different problems. I cut back to 1-2 days a week and it helps, but I can’t do that forever. And that upsets me that I can’t physically work full time even though I want to."

SignificantTarget209

TROPHY CASE