Dental Hygienist

Harbor Health Services is an innovative, growing, mission-based organization that lives, serves and collaborates with our community members to achieve our mission to help individuals reach their full potential through access to local, affordable services that promote health. Harbor provides medical, behavioral health, dental, and support services to more than 34,000 patients in Boston, the South Shore, and Cape Cod. Harbor Health also operates two Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly in Mattapan and Brockton, providing comprehensive healthcare, transportation and social services for more than 450 frail elders who continue to live with dignity and independence in the community and a Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program. To help further the mission of Harbor, we are looking for an extremely talented Dental Hygienist to join our team! 

Position is 16 hours weekly at the Harbor Community Health Center - Plymouth. Hours will be 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (two 8-hour days). 

Role: 

The Dental Hygienist provides patients with preventive, educational, and therapeutic services supporting total health for the control of oral diseases and promotion of oral health.  Duties include but are not limited to: assisting dentist; review of medical history and medications; aiding in the detection of oral diseases or conditions; performing certain clinical procedures; providing patient education; reviewing treatment plans; and aiding in clinical research.

Responsibilities:

• Takes and records vital signs and reviews medical chart for medications, medical history and allergies for procedures.
• Performs and properly documents oral exams such as oral cancer screening, preliminary examinations, periodontal charting, evaluates occlusion and parafunctional habits, screens for orthodontic, periodontal, etc., and charts dental restorations, etc.
• Instructs patient on proper dental care including, proper diet, brushing, flossing, adjunct tools, fluoride rinses and makes recommendations for fluoride prescriptions and antibacterial agents; records instructions given in the medical record.
• Performs authorized procedures such as but not limited to sub-gingival and supra-gingival scaling, root planning and curettage, application of fluoride varnish and topical anesthetics while accurately recording treatments in the medical record.
• May perform dental assisting duties as needed such as infection control, triage of emergency patients, and set up and breakdown of operations before and after patients.

Requirements:

• Graduation from an accredited Dental Hygiene school, BA preferred. 
• Current MA Dental Hygiene license and current BLS (Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers) Certification
• 1 year of experience in a professional clinical setting, 3 years of experience preferred.
• Two years of Dental Assistant experience in a professional clinical setting can substitute for one year of experience as a Dental Hygienist.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.