MACON, Ga. — The American Dental Association did a study and found the number of dental hygienists had declined since September 2020. They cited challenging work conditions, low pay and retirement as some of the reasons for the decline. Lindsey Evans is the clinical hygiene director at Central Georgia Technical College (CGTC). She suggests better benefits could help bring in hygienist.
"If there's more benefits available to part-time or full-time hygienists, it may be an incentive to help close that gap," Evans said.
CGTC is the only school in central Georgia with a dental hygienist program. Other schools are in the Atlanta. Mallorie Winge says she applied to other programs that were also competitive but chose CGTC. She says she like the correlation between oral hygiene and systemic health.
"Being able to educate patients and then cleaning teeth was just so much fun, so being able to do that every day," Winge said.
Dempsey Woodford is in the same class as Winge. She is also learning how to give patients the best oral hygiene care. She's known for a while becoming a dental hygienist was the path she wanted to take and with support from her newlywed husband, she's able to achieve her dream.
"It's been a dream since I was probably in 9th grade," Woodford said.
Woodford said she's always been "fascinated with teeth" and still is. She says many conversations she has are about oral health and says she always wants to try to educate whenever she can. Evans says the need for more dental hygienists is high.
Georgia facing dental hygiene professional shortage
"Hygiene is the first line of defense for prevention, and that's a hygienist's main goal is -- to prevent dental disease," Evans said.
Evans said with the pandemic, it caused many hygienists worry because of the virus's exposure.
"With more constraints due to COVID and the risk of infection transmission a lot of hygienist have retired or stayed at home with their children instead of putting themselves at risk."
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported around 1,500 jobs nationwide were lost from February to March of this year. With a loss, this could mean scheduling a cleaning could take a while.
CGTC does offer dental services at their Macon and Warner Robins locations. Evans told 13WMAZ you do not need to have insurance and they are accepting patients. You can find their rates here.