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Dental Hygienist Resume 2026 - RDH license, permits and perio sample free

Антон Литвинов
Антон Литвинов Founder, AI Resume Master
in 𝕏
Published: 03.10.2026 Updated: 03.10.2026

Hygiene resumes get sorted on permits before they get read for anything else. A practice with an open column needs to know whether you hold an active RDH license in their state, whether you can administer local anesthesia, whether you can monitor nitrous oxide, and which expanded functions your state has granted you. If those four facts are not findable in the first fifteen seconds, the resume loses to one where they are, regardless of how good a clinician you are. After the permits comes the part that decides whether you fit the practice: how you handle periodontal patients. A hygienist who charts six-point probing properly, stages and grades with AAP criteria, knows the difference between a prophylaxis, scaling and root planing and periodontal maintenance and can hold that conversation with a patient who thinks a cleaning is a cleaning is worth a great deal more than one who runs a Cavitron over everybody in forty minutes. Then the operational layer: columns per day, recall and reappointment, which practice software you use, infection control and radiography. Write those three layers with real numbers in them and the resume reads like somebody who has run a hygiene column, not somebody who has read about one.

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Ready sample

Dental hygienist resume sample

The order a dentist or office manager reads in: license and permits first, periodontal capability second, radiography and clinical scope third, column performance and software fourth. Nothing vague survives in any of the four.

License and permits in the headline

Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) written both ways, the state and license number, local anesthesia permit, nitrous oxide monitoring permit, radiography certification and current BLS. These are the facts a practice screens on, so they go above the first job, not in a footer.

Periodontal capability spelled out

Six-point probing, AAP staging and grading, scaling and root planing by quadrant, periodontal maintenance intervals, ultrasonic and hand instrumentation. This is what separates hygiene candidates from each other once the permits are equal.

Column performance

Patients per day, appointment lengths you work to, reappointment rate at the chair, recall patients returned, SRP case acceptance. An open hygiene column is a scheduling and production problem, and these figures describe whether you solve it.

ATS friendly

Group practices and DSOs screen automatically. Single column, standard headings, license and permits as text lines rather than badge images, software named exactly as the posting names it - Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve - MM/YYYY dates, no photo, no tables.

Sample resume text

Use it as a reference: keep the structure and wording, put in your own facts and numbers.

Priya Raghunathan

Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) - Arizona, Local Anesthesia and Nitrous Permits
Tempe, AZ
p.raghunathan.rdh@example.com
(480) 555-0192
linkedin.com/in/example

Profile

Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH), Arizona license 00000 (exp 06/2027), 7 years in general and periodontally focused practice. Local anesthesia permit and nitrous oxide monitoring permit, Arizona restorative function certification, laser certification, radiography certification and current BLS. Run a 9 to 10 patient column on 50-minute appointments with 34% periodontal cases, completing about 20 quadrants of scaling and root planing a month. Reappoint 92% of patients at the chair. Dentrix and Eaglesoft, digital radiography including FMX, bitewings and panoramic. Own instrument processing and the weekly spore test log.

Experience

Registered Dental Hygienist04/2021 - present

Desert Arch Dental Group, Tempe, AZ

  • Run a 9 to 10 patient hygiene column on 50-minute appointments in a four-operatory general practice, with approximately 34% of the column periodontal maintenance or active therapy
  • Complete around 20 quadrants of scaling and root planing a month, anesthetizing under my Arizona local anesthesia permit, and stage and grade every new periodontal patient to AAP criteria before treatment planning with the dentist
  • Expose and mount FMX, bitewing and panoramic series on digital sensors with a retake rate under 3%, and document every declined radiograph conversation
  • Reappoint 92% of patients at the chair; rebuilt the Dentrix recall list and returned 140 patients who were more than 12 months overdue over two quarters
  • Own instrument processing, autoclave operation and the weekly spore test log - no failed test in four years - and wrote the practice's updated waterline management protocol
  • Mentored two new graduate hygienists through their first three months, including perio case presentation and anesthesia technique
Registered Dental Hygienist08/2019 - 03/2021

Sonoran Periodontics, Mesa, AZ

  • Worked a periodontally focused column of 7 to 8 patients a day on 60-minute appointments, almost entirely D4910 maintenance and quadrant SRP
  • Performed implant maintenance with titanium and plastic instrumentation, placed local antimicrobials, and monitored healing at 4, 6 and 12 week recalls
  • Administered local anesthesia for the majority of appointments, including inferior alveolar and posterior superior alveolar blocks
  • Presented periodontal findings with probing depths and radiographs to patients transitioning from prophylaxis, with 81% accepting the recommended therapy
Temporary Dental Hygienist and Dental Assistant06/2017 - 07/2019

Multiple general and pediatric practices, Phoenix metro area

  • Temped across 11 general and pediatric practices as an RDH, adapting to Dentrix, Eaglesoft and Open Dental and to appointment lengths from 40 to 60 minutes
  • Monitored nitrous oxide under permit in two pediatric practices, including baseline vitals, titration and oxygen flush documentation
  • Earlier: dental assistant for two years - chairside assisting, impressions, sterilization and radiographs - which is where the software and chairside pace came from

Education

Verde Valley University2015 - 2017

Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene, CODA-accredited program

Clinical Skills

Six-point periodontal probing, AAP staging and grading, charting in DentrixScaling and root planing (D4341, D4342) and periodontal maintenance (D4910)Ultrasonic instrumentation - Cavitron and piezo - and hand instrumentation with Gracey and universal curettesLocal anesthesia administration - Arizona permit (infiltration and block)Nitrous oxide monitoring - Arizona permitDigital radiography: FMX, bitewings, periapicals, panoramic; ALARA and rectangular collimationFluoride varnish, sealants, silver diamine fluoride, air polishing, implant maintenanceArizona restorative function and laser certificationOral cancer screening, caries risk assessment, oral hygiene and tobacco cessation counselingInstrument sterilization, weekly spore testing, OSHA bloodborne pathogens, CDC infection control, HIPAA; Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental

Licensure, Permits and Certifications

  • National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE) - 2017
  • CDCA-WREB-CITA clinical board examination - 2017
  • Arizona RDH license 00000, expires 06/2027
  • Arizona local anesthesia permit - 2017
  • Arizona nitrous oxide monitoring permit - 2018
  • Arizona restorative function certification - 2020
  • Laser certification - 2022
  • Radiography certification; CPR and Basic Life Support, current; 24 CE hours completed in the current renewal cycle including infection control

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What you get

  • A complete registered dental hygienist resume sample
  • 3 PDF templates
  • Where to put license, local anesthesia and nitrous permits so a screen finds them
  • 6 mistakes that cost hygiene interviews
Profile

Dental hygienist profile summary

Four lines. Years as an RDH, the state you are licensed in with the license number, the permits you hold spelled out, the practice type you are strongest in - general, periodontal, pediatric, implant maintenance - your daily patient volume and appointment length, and the practice software you use. One of those lines should be a periodontal number, because perio is the clinical core of the role and the easiest thing to be vague about.

A new graduate writes the same four lines from the dental hygiene program's clinic. License status or board results with dates, permits already obtained, patients treated in clinic, SRP quadrants completed, radiographic series exposed, and the expanded functions your program trained you in. Do not open with how much you love helping people have healthy smiles - every applicant writes that sentence and it carries no information.

WeakCompassionate and detail-oriented dental hygienist with a passion for patient education and preventive care. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to make nervous patients feel comfortable. Seeking a position with a friendly, patient-centered dental practice.
StrongRegistered Dental Hygienist (RDH), Arizona license 00000 (exp 06/2027), 7 years in general and periodontally focused practice. Local anesthesia permit and nitrous oxide monitoring permit, plus Arizona restorative function and laser certification. Run a 9 to 10 patient column on 50-minute hygiene appointments; 34% of my column is periodontal maintenance and quadrant SRP, staged and graded to AAP criteria. Reappoint 92% of patients at the chair. Dentrix and Eaglesoft, digital radiography including FMX, bitewings and panoramic.
Tip
Write 'Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH)' spelled out and abbreviated on the same line. Postings are written both ways, screening systems match literal strings, and the abbreviation alone can be missed.
Skills

Dental hygienist skills for a resume

Periodontal assessment and therapy, instrumentation, radiography, preventive and adjunctive procedures, infection control, and the permits that decide which of these you are allowed to do in your state. Each permit gets its own line because screens filter on them individually.

Hard skills

  • Comprehensive periodontal assessment: six-point probing, recession and clinical attachment loss, bleeding on probing, mobility, furcation involvement, AAP staging and grading of periodontitis
  • Scaling and root planing by quadrant (D4341 and D4342), periodontal maintenance (D4910), adult and child prophylaxis, and the clinical judgment to say which one a patient actually needs
  • Ultrasonic instrumentation on magnetostrictive and piezo units including Cavitron, with tip selection, lavage and power settings matched to deposit and tissue
  • Hand instrumentation with area-specific Gracey and universal curettes, sickle scalers and files, plus instrument sharpening to keep an edge through a full column
  • Local anesthesia administration where permitted: infiltration and block techniques, anesthetic and vasoconstrictor selection, maximum dosing by weight, aspiration technique and complication recognition - stated with the state permit
  • Nitrous oxide monitoring or administration under the state permit, including baseline vitals, titration, oxygen flush and documentation
  • Digital radiography: full mouth series, bitewings, periapicals, panoramic and CBCT exposure where trained, with positioning, ALARA, rectangular collimation and retake discipline
  • Preventive and adjunctive procedures: fluoride varnish, sealants, silver diamine fluoride, air polishing, desensitizers, local antimicrobials, implant maintenance with appropriate instrumentation, and expanded functions such as restorative placement or laser therapy where the state grants them
  • Intraoral and extraoral examination including head and neck and oral cancer screening, caries risk assessment, oral hygiene instruction, tobacco cessation and nutritional counseling for caries
  • Infection control to CDC guidelines and OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard: instrument processing, autoclave operation and weekly spore testing with logs, surface and waterline management, PPE, sharps and HIPAA-compliant charting in Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental or Curve

Soft skills

  • Telling a patient their 'cleaning' is now periodontal therapy, with the probing numbers in front of them, without them feeling blamed
  • Keeping to appointment length when a patient wants to talk for twenty minutes
  • Working with a nervous or gagging patient and finishing the quadrant anyway
  • Flagging something in the soft tissue exam to the dentist without alarming the patient in the chair
  • Holding instrumentation quality on the ninth patient when your shoulders are done
  • Protecting your own ergonomics - loupes, chair position, patient positioning - because this is a career you want to still have in twenty years
  • Handling a patient who declines radiographs and documenting the conversation properly
  • Fitting into a practice's rhythm quickly when temping, including unfamiliar software and instrument setups
  • Taking a dentist's treatment plan and reinforcing it rather than contradicting it at the chair
  • Asking for a hygiene block, an assistant or an instrument order and making the business case for it
Experience

How to write dental hygienist experience

Formula: column plus periodontal mix plus procedures plus follow-through. 'Performed cleanings and took x-rays' describes the job title, not you. Patients per day, appointment length, what share of your column was periodontal, how many quadrants of SRP you completed in a period, how you reappointed and how many recall patients came back are the things a dentist or office manager can compare across candidates.

Say what you were trusted with beyond the chair. Mentoring new hygienists or assistants, owning the recall system, running the instrument and autoclave protocol with the spore test log, writing the practice's periodontal protocol, temping across multiple practices and adapting to each one's software. Those are reliability signals, and a practice that is hiring a hygienist to run a column unsupervised is looking for exactly them.

Weak- Performed routine cleanings, took x-rays, charted periodontal measurements and educated patients on proper brushing and flossing techniques.
Strong- Ran a 9 to 10 patient hygiene column on 50-minute appointments in a four-operatory general practice, with 34% periodontal cases; completed roughly 20 quadrants of scaling and root planing a month and staged and graded every new periodontal patient to AAP criteria; exposed and mounted FMX, bitewing and panoramic series on digital sensors with a retake rate under 3%; reappointed 92% of patients at the chair and rebuilt the Dentrix recall list, bringing back 140 patients who were more than 12 months overdue; owned instrument processing and the weekly spore test log with no failed test in four years.
What to include
Patients per day - appointment length - periodontal share of the column - SRP quadrants per month - radiographic series and retake rate - local anesthesia and nitrous use - reappointment rate - recall patients returned - expanded functions performed - software - sterilization and spore test ownership.
Education

Education, boards and licensure

A dental hygienist in the United States completes an associate or bachelor's degree from a dental hygiene program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, passes the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination, passes a clinical board examination administered by a regional testing agency - CDCA-WREB-CITA, CRDTS or SRTA depending on where you tested - and is then licensed by a state board as a Registered Dental Hygienist. The permits are separate from the license and separately granted: local anesthesia administration, nitrous oxide monitoring or administration, and in many states expanded functions such as restorative placement, laser therapy or silver diamine fluoride application. Each of those is a hiring criterion on its own, which is why they get listed individually rather than summarized as 'all state certifications current'.

  • Associate of Science or Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene, CODA-accredited program, with graduation month and year
  • National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE) passed, with the year
  • Regional clinical board examination passed, naming the agency - CDCA-WREB-CITA, CRDTS or SRTA - and the year
  • State RDH license: state, license number and expiration date, one plain text line per state you hold
  • Local anesthesia permit, listed separately with the state and year, because a practice that needs an anesthesia-capable hygienist will filter on it
  • Nitrous oxide monitoring or administration permit, also listed separately
  • Expanded function and additional state certifications: restorative function, laser, sealant certification, silver diamine fluoride, public health endorsement - each named with the state
  • Radiography certification, CPR and basic life support with the expiration date, and continuing education hours completed in the current renewal cycle including any state-mandated infection control or opioid course
Careful
Never put patient photographs, radiographs or charts on a resume or in a linked portfolio, even with the name cropped out. It is a HIPAA problem and a practice reads it as a sign their own records are not safe with you.
New graduate

Dental hygienist resume as a new graduate

A new RDH is not inexperienced. A CODA-accredited program puts you through hundreds of supervised patient appointments with counted procedures, faculty checking every quadrant, and board examinations with a live clinical component. The task is to report that as clinical work with numbers attached, which is exactly how your program already tracked it.

Put license and board status at the very top: NBDHE date, clinical board agency and date, and the state license number or the application date if it is still processing. Then quantify the clinic - patients treated, SRP quadrants, radiographic series, local anesthesia injections administered under supervision if your program included them, sealants and fluoride applications, and the expanded functions you were trained in. If you worked as a dental assistant before the program, that is directly relevant chairside and software experience and belongs on the page rather than being hidden as unrelated.

  • License and board status first: NBDHE and clinical board with dates, state license number or application date
  • Permits already held: local anesthesia, nitrous oxide monitoring, radiography, BLS, with the state
  • Clinic numbers: patients treated, adult and child prophylaxis, SRP quadrants, periodontal maintenance appointments, sealants and fluoride applications
  • Radiographic series exposed by type - FMX, bitewings, periapicals, panoramic - and whether you mounted and read them
  • Prior dental assisting, externship or community and public health rotations, with the setting and the patient population

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Mistakes

Common mistakes

Permits summarized instead of listed

'All certifications current' tells a practice nothing. Local anesthesia, nitrous oxide monitoring, radiography and any expanded function are separate state-granted privileges, and a practice that needs an anesthesia-capable hygienist filters on that exact phrase. One line each, with the state.

Periodontal work left generic

Everybody writes 'periodontal charting'. Almost nobody writes the probing protocol, AAP staging and grading, the share of their column that was periodontal, or quadrants of SRP a month. The second version is the one that tells a dentist you can carry the perio patients they are currently referring out or under-treating.

No column numbers

A hygiene post exists because there is a column to fill. Without patients per day, appointment length and reappointment rate, the office manager cannot tell whether you work a 40-minute recall practice or a 60-minute periodontal one, and those are different jobs.

Software left out or renamed

Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental and Curve are listed in postings by name because practices do not want to spend a week training software. Spell the one you use the way the posting spells it, and name the digital sensor or imaging system if you know it.

Patient education as the whole resume

Oral hygiene instruction is part of every hygiene appointment, so describing it at length distinguishes nobody. Keep it to one specific line - caries risk assessment, tobacco cessation, a measurable change in a recall population - and give the space to clinical and operational content instead.

A designed CV the practice's system cannot read

Group practices and DSOs screen automatically. Two-column layouts, license numbers inside badge graphics, skill rating dots and headshots get scrambled or dropped, and a permit a parser cannot find is a permit you do not appear to hold.

Takeaways

Takeaways

Remember

  • Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH), state and license number, in the headline
  • Local anesthesia and nitrous permits on their own lines, with the state
  • Periodontal share of the column, SRP quadrants, AAP staging and grading
  • Patients per day, appointment length, reappointment rate, recall returned
  • Radiographic series by type, retake rate, ALARA and infection control
  • Software named exactly - Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Curve
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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

The license and the permits, placed in the headline and summary rather than at the bottom. Write 'Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH)', the state, the license number and expiration, then list the local anesthesia permit, the nitrous oxide monitoring permit and radiography certification as separate items. Practices screen on those exact strings, and a resume that makes them hunt loses to one that does not.
Because they are separately granted privileges and a practice's need for them is specific. A periodontally focused office that wants a hygienist to anesthetize for quadrant SRP is filtering for the anesthesia permit; a pediatric practice is filtering for nitrous. Bundling them into 'certifications current' means neither filter finds you, and an office manager with forty applications will not infer them.
Use the clinical vocabulary and attach numbers. Six-point probing with recession and clinical attachment loss recorded, staging and grading to AAP criteria, the percentage of your column that was periodontal maintenance or active therapy, and roughly how many quadrants of scaling and root planing you completed in a month. That tells a dentist whether you can take over the perio patients in their practice or whether they will still be managing them.
From the program clinic, quantified. Patients treated, adult and child prophylaxis, SRP quadrants, periodontal maintenance appointments, radiographic series by type, sealant and fluoride applications, local anesthesia injections administered under supervision if your program included them, and the expanded functions you were trained in. Lead with NBDHE and clinical board dates and license status, since those are the gate on being scheduled at all.
Yes, and it has a specific strength worth naming. A hygienist who has worked across several practices has adapted to different software, instrument setups, appointment lengths and perio protocols quickly, which is exactly what a practice covering a leave or a vacancy needs. Group the temp work as one entry, state how many practices and what range of software and practice types, and keep the clinical numbers alongside it.
Which series you expose, on what equipment, and how carefully. Full mouth series, bitewings, periapicals, panoramic and CBCT where you are trained, on digital sensors or phosphor plates, with positioning technique, rectangular collimation, ALARA practice and a retake rate if you track one. A low retake rate is a real quality signal because retakes cost chair time and expose the patient twice.
Both, briefly and concretely. Infection control belongs as a named responsibility - instrument processing, autoclave operation, weekly spore testing with the log, waterline management, the OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard and CDC guidelines - because owning that protocol is a trust role. Ergonomics belongs as a one-line practical detail such as loupes and positioning, which reads as somebody planning a long career rather than somebody about to burn out a shoulder.
Yes - the full sample above, plus the templates on this page. You can build your own in the builder for free and see the result; downloading the finished PDF is paid, by subscription or a one-time payment. The layout stays single column with standard headings and text-based license lines, which matters because group practices screen automatically before a dentist sees anything.
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