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Our Dental Hygienist Training Program

At Tend, dental hygienists feel supported and prepared to do their jobs—and it's thanks to our unique training program.

In this article:

By Tend

Posted Oct 11th, 2021 in Providers

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: a dental hygienist starts at a new dental practice and gets thrown right in. No onboarding. No training. They’re expected to learn new systems—even new skills—on the fly. It’s stressful, and it’s isolating.

That is not what happens at Tend. We do dental differently for our patients, and we do dental differently for our clinicians. For dental hygienists, that means a whole new way of being brought onto the team. We want you to feel supported and prepared from day one.

Two team members looking at a large digital X-ray of teeth. One team member is pointing at something on the X-ray.

Orientation: The First Week for Dental Hygienists

In your first week at Tend, we immerse you in the company, and we introduce you to the team you’ll be collaborating with. You’ll be part of sessions on our brand, culture, and values. You’ll shadow people in different roles—from a dental hygienist, to a dental assistant, to a welcome bar associate—just so you know how everything works. You’ll get trained on all of our technology. You’ll be part of mock appointments (even dress rehearsals). At the end of all of that, you’ll be singing in your scrubs.

Quote from Hygienist Olivia B' "Orientation helped me so much - I was able to get my questions answered and visualize how I was going to run through my appointments."

Introducing: Lead Dental Hygienists

“Lead Hygienist” is a new, elevated role we created to support our team. In addition to cleanings and screenings, our Lead Dental Hygienists also help onboard, coach, and train other dental hygienists. Their goal is to help ensure that you’re set up for success—and that our members have the best possible experience. Over time, we promote dental hygienists to be Lead Dental Hygienists. It just takes a commitment to leadership, responsibility, and being a great teammate.

Table explaining that Hygienists have at least an associates degree plus 1-3 years of experience and do cleanings and screenings. In a second column it shows that a Lead Hygienist has 3-5 years experience plus 6 months at Tend. Lead Hygienists can perform cleanings, screenings, onboarding, coaching and technology training.

A Collaborative Culture at our Dental Studios

When you’re part of the Tend team, you’re really that—part of the team. You’ll be relied on by the other clinicians who work with you, and you’ll rely on them in turn. It’s the perfect balance of independence and support, trust and feedback. Everyone at Tend is always continuing to learn from each other. We need them to, to keep transforming dental’s future.

Quote from Lead Hygienist Edan K, "Throughout my career, hygienists with a LOT of experience have taught me things that can't be learned from a textbook. Experience is knowledge, and knowledge is power."

TendU: Our Dental Learning Platform

We support our dental hygienists well beyond orientation and coaching. We also have an in-house learning platform called TendU. It offers world-class continuing education courses—from how to manage gum sensitivity to how to talk about proper at-home care—so you’ll always have a way to sharpen your skills and build new ones.

Apply to be a Dental Hygienist at Tend Dental

We're opening new dental studios near you, and we’re looking for top-notch dental hygienists to join our highly skilled and rapidly growing team.

See Open Roles