I work four days a week, Tues thru Fri. I know some hygienist that work five days and love it. Others usually scale back to four after awhile due to getting tired of five days. If you can do five days I say go for it but don’t be afraid to scale back if you find yourself getting burned out.

Early on I worked 4 , 11-hour days…12 years later went to 4 normal days and Sat mornings…later had kids and went to evenings and Saturdays…kids older and I started coaching softball so went to weekday mornings…Now…after 28 years I work 2 mornings, one afternoon for a minimal 15 hours…Love it…dropped saturdays after 22 years…great to have those back…I admit I cannot imagine going back to full time…I enjoy part time and add xtra shifts to fill in often…but my base is about 15 hours now and I really enjoy it…I did alot of hours until I had kids…one thing about our profession…we can mold it to fit our needs… 🙂

I currently work 4 days a week, M-Th with an occasional Friday. I also volunteer on some Fridays at our local boys and girls club dental clinic. I used to work 5-6 days a week but quit that about 15 years ago.

I work 4 days per week, Tue-Fri. 9-5 and absolutely love it! Once in a while I fill in on a Monday but it is not my preference to do so that’s for sure. I want to be in this field a long time, so I don’t want to burn myself out.

After 22 years of hygiene I only work 4 days a week. I feel like I’ve earned this. I could use the money working 5 days but my body appreciates the rest from dental hygiene.

I have been a hygienist for 6 years and work Mon-thurs 8-5 and most Fridays 8-3. I have recently started taking off several Fridays a year to give myself a break and have been enjoying it. My back doesn’t hold up that great sometimes and that is my main frustration with a 5 day workweek. What do you guys do to help your back pain?

I work 5 days a week.. Mon 8-6, T-Th 8-5 and Fri 8-2. I am going to work until 5 on Mondays in January.. I’m definitely starting to get burnt out.. But I basically have to work these hours to cover bills and such.. If I didn’t work in such a great office, it would be much harder! I am very lucky to be working for the boss I have, so it does make it a bit easier. Eventually I will probably drop to 3-4 days, but not really any time soon.

I used to work 3 days and loved it…it was just enough. I went to 4 days and got immediate burnout. My days are long…9 1/2 – 10 hours…only a short break for lunch. I see 8-10 patients per day, but spend extra time at the end of the day addressing and compiling reminder postcards. I think burnout largely coordinates with number of patients scheduled, and hours to a typical work day. If I could work an 8 hour day, Fridays might be okay.

I usually do 4.5 per week. Usually eight hr days but one day a week I do a ten hr day. It balances out though since I only do fives hrs on Fridays 🙂

In general I work 3-4 days a week sometimes five if I want to earn some extra money for something special.

I had chosen early in my hygiene career to work two days a week after I had children. I had worked five days a week when I was an assistant but, being a hygienist doubles your pay so I could pick how much to work. After 16 years of hygiene I developed neck , rotator cuff and back issues. Luckily I was able to continue working with deep tissues massage therapy,chiropractic and other modalities.
So work out a schedule that gives you the income you need but, keeps your body balanced.

I work 4 12 hour days and have a long weekend with Fridays off. I initially liked working these hours and like the money I was bringing in, but now I am seeing the effects of it. I have pain in my back, shoulders, and hands from the excessive hours. I have spoken with the dentist about it and am going to be cutting down to 4 days a week for 6-8 hours a day once we get another hygienist in the office to take some of the hours.

When I first started hygiene, I wanted to work as much as I could to get my skills up to par and get the experience, but now it is just more of a pain (literally) to do it.