National Dental Hygiene Month on October, 2024: Any tips on taking the Dental Hygiene National Boards exam?

October, 2024 is National Dental Hygiene Month 2024. When Is National Dental Month‎ Explore When Is National Dental Month. Get Answers Now on Ask.com.

I hope you have been studying for a long time. I took my boards in March but started studying 6 months prior (I live in Michigan). I don't know how the exam differs in Canada from USA but ours was a 8 hour test with a lunch break halfway through. Take an aspirin with water the morning of the test, eat a good breakfast, get a good night's sleep the night before, and get up early enough so you aren't rushing. Don't cram any extra information the morning of the test, you won't remember it. Go with your first instinct & don't second guess yourself, you don't want to over-analyze the questions. Good luck!

Which is more difficult dental hygiene or pharmacy tech?

It depends on what you mean by harder. My opinion is that it would be more difficult to become a dental hygienist vs a pharmacy technician because you have to go through schooling- either a certificate or an associates degree (2 years). You have to have a license. To get a license you need to:

1- Graduate from an accredited dental hygiene program

2- Successful completion of the written National Board Dental Hygiene Examination

3- Successful completion of a regional or state clinical board examination

Once these steps have been completed, an applicant for licensure must then contact the state licensing authority in the state where he/she wishes to practice. As licensing requirements vary from state to state, it is necessary to contact each licensing authority in a given state for its specific application requirements and procedures. Examples of other types of requirements and information needed are:

Successful completion of a jurisprudence exam

Proof of CPR certification

Letters of recommendation from dentists licensed in the state in which you wish to obtain licensure

Official transcripts from high school and colleges attended

Official letters from the boards of dentistry where licensure is held

Plus most states require you to renew your license each year.

To become a pharmacy technician, you may need to go through training as well and may need to get a certification and register with your state board of pharmacy. It all depends on your state's requirements. Some states have no regulations for pharmacy technicians and some require a lot. However training can take you as little as 3 months to complete- depending on how much time you spend on it, and you generally don't need to get a license and renew each year. Usually the most that is required is training, certification, and registering with the state board of pharmacy. You can look up your state's requirements at and go to FAQ#4 Do I need to be certified. There you will find a pdf document with a list of requirements by state.

As far as the job goes- I think the one that would be harder depends on your personality. Personally I couldn't look into people's mouths all day and smell bad breath and clean plaque off their teeth. But that is me. I'm sure dental hygienists have ways of dealing with those issues. As a pharmacy technician you would have to deal with sick customers and generally a lot of elderly people. There are good parts to each job too. You just asked about the difficult parts.

Obviously there won't be much math involved with cleaning teeth but there will be some involved in the pharmacy. You may be running a register and billing insurance companies but there are computer systems that do the calculations for you. You will have to count money.

I would suggest looking more into each career to see which you think you would like more. You can find all sorts of data on the Department of Labor website bls.gov/oco/ Or if possible you can take a look at training courses so you can get an idea of what type of info you will be learning and see if you would like it or not. I know of a course demo for pharmacy tech training but not for dental hygiene. Obviously that won't be a course you can take online.

Hope this info is useful! Good luck with your search!

I'm going to be getting my dental assistant certificate in a couple months...?

Congratulations!! I did the same thing and after working for several years I went back to school. You will have to check with the local technical or dental school to see what is needed. Some dental schools offer a Bachelors degree which means you will need about 2 years of core classes before going to hygiene school. Some of the technical schools offer an associates degree and will have your core Incorporated into the two years! I recommend checking the requirements for your state on getting your licenses as a RDH. The national boards exam and the clinical exam for your state require a lot of preparation. I really don't see how you could cram all that you need for those in just two years. I went the the 4 yr route. Good luck! you can e-mail me if you have any more questions, I would be glad to help!