Dental Hygienist

Salud Para La Gente (Salud) provides high quality, comprehensive and cost-effective healthcare to underserved low-income communities in the Monterey Bay area, including Santa Cruz County and North Monterey County. We began in Watsonville in 1978 as a storefront “free clinic,” and with the ever growing need for health services, in 1992 became a federally qualified community health center (FQHC). Today we are a primary health care network with 11 clinic sites, over 400 employees and continue to provide high quality services to patients of all ages.

Salud offers a competitive salary and a collaborative culture that values excellence, achievement, innovation and compassion.   

Under the supervision of the Dental Director the Dental Hygienist provides services, including but not limited to: charting of obvious lesions and conditions, procedures that maintain a patients oral health, integration of dental services with our medical services, and conducting educational programs for the prevention and control of dental disease. Dental Hygienist also emphasizes the importance of education and prevention to patients, staff, and the community at large.

The ideal candidate will embrace our mission to provide high quality dental care to patients of all ages, and support our vision and values through excellence and competence, collaboration, innovation, respect, commitment to our community, and accountability and ownership.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provides dental prophylactic services to prevent and control dental disease.
• Coordinates and plans educational programs to ensure greater comprehension of good dental practices.
•  Maintains patients electronic dental record and to track procedures performed, materials used, and other relevant information.
• Responsible for cleaning the teeth including scaling and polishing. 
• Preventive treatments such as topical applications of drugs to the surface tissues and exposed surfaces of human teeth. 
• Advises patients on proper home care and the treatment of teeth and gums.
• Independently prepares topical dental solutions and instructions in preventive dental hygiene to patients.
• Administers local anesthetic as needed.
• Sterilization of instruments.
• Takes radiographs as needed.
• Work with a variety of patients including pediatric patients, pregnant patients, and the medically compromised patients.
• Performs basic restorative procedures such as cement removal, sealant placement and other allowable duties specified by the California Board of Dental Hygiene.
• Other duties as deemed necessary by Dentists and Dental Director.