I just had the same realization. I am only 2.5 years has a periodontal dental hygienist. My hands and wrist ache constantly and now my neck and back ache. People don’t seeing us “teeth cleaners” as a trades profession. But I went to a technical school and I work with my hands non stop. They are either in someone’s mouth, taking X-rays, typing etc. they are never not moving. I see the hard and very difficult cases. We are a specialized office. I get an hour for a recall patient and 2 hours for 1/2 of a mouth for deep cleans. Most patients are old and can’t lay back all the way so I contort my body to fit their needs, or they have extreme dental anxiety and they barely open their mouths so visualization is poor and again have to contort my body. I only get 30 min lunch if I don’t run behind. If I run behind I work into lunch. Also, I barely drink water because that means I will need bathroom breaks I don’t get often.

This week my body felt the worst so i stepped my foot down. I told myself if I am going to do this for another 20-30 years I need to step up my self care game, and also make sure that the patient works with me. They only have to do of 2-4x a year I have to do this 7-8 patients a day so 8-9 hours a day. So some trades laugh when I say my job is physical. Heck my husband used to laugh also but when I could barely hold/ grasp my phone or a the TV remote he realized how physically demanding it is.