Dental hygienists

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About dental hygienists

Dental hygienists are regulated health professionals who provide clinical assessments and therapy, as well as oral health education, and offer health promotion strategies to people of all ages. Many dental hygienists also conduct or participate in research studies to expand the scientific basis of dental hygiene practice.Reference1

Dental hygienists have interprofessional practices in dental offices with dentists, denturists and dental assistants. Dental hygienists practise in a variety of settings, including public health, dental hygiene practices, dental offices, hospitals, long-term care facilities and educational institutions, and in the dental industry. An increasing number of dental hygienists have independent dental hygiene practices, where they practise solely or interprofessionally with other health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and speech–language pathologists and audiologists.

CIHI collects high-level, standardized information on more than 30 groups of health care professionals in Canada. This includes information on their supply, distribution, demographics and regulatory environment. To find out more about CIHI’s health workforce data, visit the Health Workforce Database metadata page.

Learn more about dental hygienists in our recent release on Health workforce in Canada: Overview.