Community Sentiment
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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Dental Hygienists?
Task-level automation exposure for Dental Hygienists: 16 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
28%
weighted task index
16 of 16 tasks scored
Median Salary
$98,100 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
High
222,740 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+8.0%
employment change
15,000 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 52 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$59,320 – $137,220
Highest medians
District of Columbia $137,220
Alaska $132,690
Washington $131,160
California $124,930
Oregon $122,080
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $59,320
Alabama $61,160
Guam $62,970
Mississippi $67,280
West Virginia $73,840
State figures come from the 29-1292 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 28%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 24%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 46%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 15%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 39/100
Moderate
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
16 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 22%
3 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 12%
2 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 65%
11 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Constituent Tasks
#18536 · Core · 62% automatable
Record and review patient medical histories.
interpersonal — Patient history requires live elicitation and judgment
Record patient medical histories.
#417 · Core · 10% automatable
Feel and visually examine gums for sores and signs of disease.
visual inspection — Oral examination requires direct hands-on inspection
Examine mouth, teeth, gums, or related facial structures.
#421 · Core · 15% automatable
Examine gums, using probes, to locate periodontal recessed gums and signs of gum disease.
physical manipulation — Diagnostic instruments applied to patients by hand
Examine mouth, teeth, gums, or related facial structures. Operate diagnostic or therapeutic medical instruments or equipment.
#416 · Core · 4% automatable
Clean calcareous deposits, accretions, and stains from teeth and beneath margins of gums, using dental instruments.
physical manipulation — Dental procedures require manual dexterity
Treat dental problems or diseases.
#18537 · Core · 55% automatable
Provide clinical services or health education to improve and maintain the oral health of patients or the general public.
decision support — Wellness advice needs tailoring and clinical accountability
Provide health and wellness advice to patients, program participants, or caregivers.
#418 · Core · 62% automatable
Chart conditions of decay and disease for diagnosis and treatment by dentist.
interpersonal — Patient history requires live elicitation and judgment
Record patient medical histories.
#422 · Core · 30% automatable
Expose and develop x-ray film.
physical manipulation — Processing requires physical handling of imaging media
Process x-rays or other medical images.
#23921 · Core · 48% automatable
Attend continuing education courses to maintain or update skills.
information retrieval — AI curates updates; human maintains working knowledge
Maintain current knowledge related to work activities. Attend training sessions or professional meetings to develop or maintain professional knowledge.
#420 · Core · 4% automatable
Apply fluorides or other cavity preventing agents to arrest dental decay.
physical manipulation — Dental procedures require manual dexterity
Treat dental problems or diseases.
#18538 · Core · 10% automatable
Maintain dental equipment and sharpen and sterilize dental instruments.
physical manipulation — Loading and operating sterilizing equipment by hand
Sterilize medical equipment or instruments. Maintain medical equipment or instruments.
#18539 · Core · 71% automatable
Maintain patient recall system.
decision support — Calendar scheduling automatable; exceptions need human judgment
Schedule appointments. Schedule patient procedures or appointments.
#419 · Core · 10% automatable
Feel lymph nodes under patient's chin to detect swelling or tenderness that could indicate presence of oral cancer.
visual inspection — Oral examination requires direct hands-on inspection
Examine mouth, teeth, gums, or related facial structures.
#427 · Core · 4% automatable
Administer local anesthetic agents.
physical manipulation — Anesthesia administration is high-risk hands-on clinical act
Administer anesthetics or sedatives to control pain.
#424 · Core · 4% automatable
Remove excess cement from coronal surfaces of teeth.
physical manipulation — Dental procedures require manual dexterity
Treat dental problems or diseases.
#428 · Supplemental · 22% automatable
Conduct dental health clinics for community groups to augment services of dentist.
interpersonal — Healthcare delivery direction carries clinical accountability
Direct healthcare delivery programs.
#425 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Make impressions for study casts.
physical manipulation — Medical device fabrication is physical manufacturing
Fabricate medical devices.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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