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How exposed to AI is a Dental Hygienist?

Of the 18 tasks O*NET lists for dental hygienists, 0 could be done in half the time with a chat window today. 15 cannot be sped up at all. Here is which.

Exposure means published research judged an AI could halve the time a task takes, at the same quality. It does not mean the task stops needing a person. How to read this

Also called
Dental HygienistHygienistLicensed Dental HygienistPediatric Dental HygienistRegistered Dental Hygienist (RDH)
Reachable today Needs software built first Cannot be sped up
18
tasks rated for this occupation
25%
hold a degree, from a survey of only 19
207k
people do this job in the US
81 of 89
least protected in healthcare practitioners

Every task, and what AI can do with it

These are O*NET's task statements for this occupation, exactly as written, sorted into the three bands by the ratings behind this report. Nothing has been reworded.

Only with software built on top

3
  • Record and review patient medical histories
  • Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist
  • Maintain patient recall system

Cannot be sped up

15
  • Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease
  • Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease
  • Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments
  • Provide clinical services or health education to improve and maintain the oral health of patients or the general public
  • Expose and develop x-ray film
  • Attend continuing education courses to maintain or update skills
  • Apply fluorides or other cavity preventing agents to arrest dental decay
  • Maintain dental equipment and sharpen and sterilize dental instruments
  • Feel lymph nodes under patient's chin to detect swelling or tenderness that could indicate presence of oral cancer
  • Administer local anesthetic agents
  • Remove excess cement from coronal surfaces of teeth
  • Conduct dental health clinics for community groups to augment services of dentist
  • Place and remove rubber dams, matrices, and temporary restorations
  • Make impressions for study casts
  • Remove sutures and dressings
What this does not say

This is not a prediction about your job

Nobody surveyed an employer. Tasks are counted equally, so a percentage here is a share of the list rather than a share of your week. And the ratings were made in 2023, which makes every figure a floor rather than a ceiling.

It must never be used to select anyone for redundancy. The full limits are here.

Where to go next

This is the standard task list for the title. The useful next question is which of the tasks you actually do should go near AI, and which should not.

Sort your own tasks Read the full report

Exposure ratings from Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs, Science 384, 1306–1308, 2024, used under the MIT licence. This page includes information from the O*NET Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. People Team AI has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Employment figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.