From “treats patients” to “utilizes evidence based decision making”.

Your clinical expertise is the result of extensive training and experience. You've attended lectures, studied textbooks, and learned from seasoned experts. Beyond the classroom, you've refined your knowledge through ongoing education and research. The treatment plans you develop are carefully informed by a wealth of data gathered from your examinations—including bleeding on probing (BOP), pocket depths, bone height, and updated health histories, among other factors. Sure, you “treat patients” - but when you do, you utilize evidence based decision making.

From “takes annual CE” to “engages in ongoing professional development to optimize best practice.”

Sure, we have a professional obligation to take CE, but as a general rule we commit to classes that are going to have the most impact on our practice. Why? Because we care about our patients and their health outcomes. We want to be our best selves so they can be their healthiest selves. Lean into this professionalism when writing your resume.

From “assists with front office” to “manages scheduling, billing, and filing for a dynamic multi-disciplinary team”

For many hygienists, no patient means no pay. Out of necessity, we may help fill holes in the schedule, refute rejected insurance claims, or help with filing charts (the paper to electronic switch took longer for some offices than others). Especially if you are looking into career options in hospital scheduling or insurance, explaining the front office support you provided in detail is important. If the recruiter or hiring manager reading your resume has never worked in a dental office, how will they know what you did?

From “patient education” to “health care knowledge translation”

Possibly one of the most undersold skills in the dental hygiene tool kit - and perhaps one of the most important - is our ability to take complex health information and distill it into something our patients could understand and apply. You assessed your patients’ ability to digest information, and then presented what they needed in a format that worked for them. Maybe that was a visual aid, perhaps a physical demonstration of technique, or maybe you made printed materials and included those in their take-home bags. What we very humbly call patient education is exalted as knowledge translation in other spaces. Don’t be humble - this is an important skill.

From “familiar with FOI and HIPPA” to “understands, interprets, and applies health care and privacy legislation.”

You’re probably used to highlighting your understanding of the importance of information privacy - but if you zoom out, you’ll realize your familiarity with legislation and policy is much bigger than that. In addition to information privacy, you’ve had to understand and adhere to employment laws (especially if you ever worked as an independent contractor), licensing requirements, infection control and safety standards, and ethical guidelines, as well as any policies specific to the office where you worked (you may have even written some of these policies).

From “creates care plans” to “implements waterfall-style project management principals and feedback loops to optimize outcomes.”

Patient care planning has a lot in common with project management. You have an identified goal, and you work towards it in cycles (waterfall method), making adjustments based on evidence from your assessments (feedback loop).