Dental Hygienists
Administer oral hygiene care to patients. Assess patient oral hygiene problems or needs and maintain health records. Advise patients on oral health maintenance and disease prevention. May provide advanced care such as providing fluoride treatment or administering topical anesthesia.
222,740 people do this job in the US. $98,100 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 37%
- 0%
- 63%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 4%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 32%. Today's estimate: 33%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 16 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 20% | 29 min17 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Maintain patient recall system.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 18% | 50 min25 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Maintain dental equipment and sharpen and sterilize dental instruments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 12% | 29 min17 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Provide clinical services or health education to improve and maintain the oral health of patients or the general public.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 9% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Record and review patient medical histories.Done hourly or more by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 8% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 13 min4 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Attend continuing education courses to maintain or update skills.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h | 32%Half by Jan 2027 | |
| Expose and develop x-ray film.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 13 min8 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 10 min4 min to 15 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 7 min3 min to 10 min | Stays with people | |
| Apply fluorides or other cavity preventing agents to arrest dental decay.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 2% | 7 min4 min to 10 min | Stays with people | |
| Administer local anesthetic agents.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 1.0% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).