Introduction

Dental hygiene is a standard component of dental practices. From a clinical standpoint, hygienists provide the preventive aspect of dentistry and have helped millions of Americans to achieve optimal oral health and maintain their teeth for a lifetime. To a large degree, dental hygiene is to be credited for fewer people having extractions or debilitating intraoral issues that can negatively affect their lives. From a business standpoint, dental hygienists stand with dentists as being one of the two production centers in most dental practices.