My Biggest Tips for Surviving Dental Hygiene School

Dental hygiene school is hard.

If you're just starting, somewhere in the middle of it, or you've already graduated, that statement is probably as obvious as the sky being blue.

Dental hygiene school consumes your time, your brain, your energy, and unfortunately, your budget. There are days when it feels like all you do is study, stress, and wonder how you're possibly supposed to remember all of this information. It's not easy. But if I had to give one piece of advice to anyone entering hygiene school, it would be two simple words: be organized.

Now, if you've spent any amount of time on my blog, you're probably not surprised that's my answer. I love organization. But trust me when I say that having systems in place can make the difference between feeling completely overwhelmed and feeling like you're at least somewhat in control of the chaos. So let's talk about my biggest tips for surviving hygiene school—because let's be honest, I'm not entirely convinced "thriving" in hygiene school is actually a thing.

1. Figure Out How You Learn

This is the most important piece of advice I can give.

Before you worry about grades, boards, competencies, clinic requirements, or any of the million other things hygiene school throws at you, figure out how you actually learn. Everyone learns differently, and the reality is that your learning style isn't always going to match the way your instructors teach.

Most of my instructors were big PowerPoint people, which in all fairness is probably the most efficient way to get a large amount of information across to a classroom. But for me, I can't stare at slide after slide of oral anatomy and magically understand how arteries, veins, nerves, and muscles all work together. My brain needs to see the whole picture.

So I became a highlighter addict.

I color-coded everything.

My notes had a system that made sense to me, even if it looked completely ridiculous to everyone else. Different colors represented different structures, different pathways, and different concepts. Once I had my notes color-coded, I would go back and rewrite them using that same system.

Yes, rewrite them.

Entirely.

I know. It sounds like a lot. My classmates definitely thought I was crazy.

But it doesn't stop there.

After rewriting my notes, I would create flow charts showing how everything actually worked together in the body. Instead of memorizing isolated facts, I wanted to understand the entire process from beginning to end. I needed to see how one thing connected to the next and how everything fit together as a whole.

Looking back, it was probably an absurd amount of work. But it worked for me.

Seeing information laid out visually helped me understand concepts instead of simply memorizing them. Once I could see how everything connected, it clicked. Suddenly the information wasn't just something I had to memorize for a test—it actually made sense.

A lot of my classmates thought I was nuts for spending so much time on notes and flow charts. But you know who never failed a test?

Me.

Not because I was smarter than anyone else. Not because school came naturally to me. It certainly didn't. I succeeded because I took the time to figure out how I learned best and then committed to studying that way, even when it looked completely different from what everyone else was doing.

The sooner you stop trying to study like your classmates and start studying the way your brain actually learns, the better off you'll be. What works for someone else may not work for you, and that's okay. The goal isn't to study like everyone else—the goal is to find a system that helps you succeed.

Trust me, your future self will thank you.

2. Figure Out Where You Study Best

This tip might sound similar to the first one, but it's a little different.

Once you've figured out how you learn, the next step is figuring out where you learn best.

Just like everyone studies differently, everyone studies best in different environments. I had classmates who could sit in the middle of a busy coffee shop with people constantly coming and going and somehow stay completely focused. Others needed the silence of their homes with absolutely no distractions around them.

I was somewhere in the middle.

I needed to be around people, but I also needed my own space. I liked having other students around me because it created a sense of accountability. Seeing everyone else studying made me feel like I needed to stay on task too. At the same time, I didn't want to be distracted by conversations or everything happening around me.

For me, the library was the perfect solution.

More specifically, I loved study rooms.

For some reason, study rooms intimidated me at first. I felt like I was taking up space that someone else might need more than I did, or that I was somehow in the way. Looking back, that's kind of funny because that's exactly what they're there for.

Use them.

Seriously.

They're one of the best resources available to you.

On days when study rooms weren't available, I would find a quiet corner in the library or sit in a larger study area with other students. Even if there were people around me, I could put in my headphones, settle into my own little world, and get to work.

Speaking of headphones, let's talk about music.

I cannot study with music that has words. The second lyrics enter the picture, my brain decides that memorizing the song is suddenly more important than memorizing cranial nerves.

So I became a big classical music listener.

There was something about it that helped me focus while also bringing a little bit of calm to the chaos of hygiene school. Between exams, competencies, clinic requirements, and everything else on my plate, having that quiet background music felt surprisingly comforting.

The biggest lesson here is that your study environment matters more than you think. If you're constantly distracted, uncomfortable, or struggling to focus, it may not be the material that's the problem—it might be where you're trying to study.

So experiment. Try the coffee shop. Try the library. Try a study room. Try your kitchen table.

Try whatever spaces are available to you until you find the one that helps you focus and feel productive.

When you find the environment that works for you, studying becomes a whole lot easier.

And in hygiene school, we'll take every advantage we can get.

3. Find Your People

If there is one thing hygiene school teaches you, it's that you cannot do it alone.

Yes, you'll be responsible for your own studying, your own patients, and your own grades. But having the right people around you can make all the difference.

Your study group isn't just your study group.

They're your people.

They're the ones who understand exactly what you're going through because they're living it too. They're the people who won't judge you when you're stressed, overwhelmed, sleep-deprived, and questioning every life choice that led you to hygiene school.

They're the people who will be crying under a study room table with you at 9:30 at night.

Hypothetically, of course.

Or maybe not.

The point is, they're the people who get it.

They're the ones who will encourage you after an exam you swear you failed. They'll remind you that one bad grade doesn't define you. They'll celebrate your wins, talk you through your frustrations, and somehow make even the most stressful days a little more manageable.

And beyond the emotional support, they're an incredible resource academically too.

You'll help each other work through difficult concepts, compare notes, share study materials, and sometimes even help each other find patients when clinic requirements start getting stressful. There will be times when you're staring at a question and no matter how hard you try, you just can't understand it. Then someone else explains it from a completely different perspective and suddenly everything clicks.

Some of the biggest lightbulb moments I had in hygiene school came from conversations with classmates, not from a textbook.

We all think differently, and sometimes hearing a concept explained another way is exactly what you need.

Even if you're not naturally outgoing, I encourage you to find at least one or two people you can lean on. You don't need a huge friend group. You don't need to be the most social person in your class. But having a few people you trust enough to ask questions, share frustrations with, and celebrate victories alongside can make a world of difference.

Because trust me—you are going to have questions.

Lots of them.

And when you're navigating one of the most challenging educational experiences of your life, having people in your corner makes the journey a whole lot easier.

Some of my favorite memories from hygiene school aren't the exams I passed or the competencies I completed. They're the moments spent laughing, studying, stressing, and surviving alongside people who understood exactly what I was going through.

Find your people.

You'll need them more than you know.

4. Overstudy and Take More Notes

I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear. Don't hate me.

You're already studying constantly, you're already taking notes, and you're already wondering how there could possibly be more information to fit into your brain. But trust me on this one—overstudy. Take the extra notes. And most importantly, don't just memorize information to get through the next exam. Try to actually understand it.

When you're sitting in an embryology lecture or any dense science-heavy class, it's easy to think, “I'm never going to use every tiny detail of this once I'm in clinic.” And you're probably right—you won't. But that's not really the point. The point is that you're not just trying to pass one exam, you're building a foundation that will carry you through hygiene school and ultimately through boards.

And boards have a way of pulling everything back up.

Throughout school, you'll constantly hear your instructors say things like “this will be on boards” or “you need to know this for boards.” In the moment, it's tempting to just highlight it, maybe jot a quick note, and tell yourself you'll come back to it later. But when boards season actually comes around, are you really going to dig through every lecture, every PowerPoint, and every notebook trying to find those random highlighted lines? Probably not.

That’s why I created a boards binder.

It was nothing fancy—just a simple binder with blank pages that I brought with me to class and clinic. Every time an instructor said something was important for boards, it went straight into that binder. I didn't rely on remembering it later or trusting that I would find it again. I just put it in one place immediately so I knew it was there.

At first, it felt like extra work. Another thing to keep track of. But when it came time to study for boards, it ended up being one of the best systems I had.

Instead of scrambling through old notes and trying to remember where I had seen something, I had one organized place where all of those “this is important” moments lived. Everything was already gathered, already simplified, and already ready to study.

I also paired that binder with a big boards review book from a seminar I attended, and I cannot recommend those seminars enough. If you take anything from this section, let it be this—go to the boards review. No questions asked.

Hygiene school moves fast, and it builds on itself quickly. What feels like a small detail in one semester can show up again years later when you're preparing for boards. So taking the extra time now to organize, rewrite, and over-prepare is never wasted time.

It might feel like you're doing more than your classmates, or going a little overboard, but I'd rather be overprepared now than overwhelmed later.

So overstudy. Take the notes. Make the binder. Your future self will be very glad you did.

5. Do. Not. Change. Your Answer.

This one is simple, but it might be one of the hardest lessons to actually follow.

Do. Not. Change. Your answer.

Unless you are 100% certain that your first answer is completely wrong or, as I like to call it, “so silly goofy that there is no saving it,” you need to trust your gut and stick with it.

In hygiene school, especially on exams, you will absolutely find yourself overthinking. You’ll read a question, pick an answer, move on… and then suddenly your brain starts spiraling. You’ll convince yourself that maybe you misread something, maybe there’s a trick, maybe you forgot a tiny detail. That second-guessing is almost inevitable.

But here’s what I learned the hard way: most of the time, my first answer was the right one.

I would change my answer so often thinking I was correcting a mistake, only to realize later that I had talked myself out of a correct response. And honestly, that was more frustrating than getting the question wrong the first time.

Now, of course, there are exceptions. If you truly realize you misread the question, or you catch something obvious that changes everything, then yes—change it. But that’s rare. Most of the time, it’s just anxiety talking and trying to convince you that you don’t know what you actually do know.

And that’s the key.

Trust what you studied. Trust the time you put in. Trust the fact that you prepared for this moment.

You know more than you think you do.

So pick your answer. Commit to it. Move on.

And try not to let your own overthinking talk you out of what you already knew in the first place.

Final Thoughts

If you’re in hygiene school right now, or about to start, just know this—you’ve got this.

Really.

Trust yourself and trust all the time you’re putting into studying. Even on the days it feels like nothing is sticking or everything is overwhelming, you are still learning more than you realize. You’ve put in the hours, you’ve put in the effort, and yes… you’ve probably overstudied at least a little (which, in this case, is not a bad thing).

But just as important as studying hard is giving yourself grace.

You are not a machine, and you’re not meant to run on stress and caffeine alone. Make space for your brain to rest and your body to breathe. Step away from the books when you need to. Take breaks without guilt. Let yourself reset so you can come back stronger and more focused.

And don’t forget the things that keep you grounded.

Take time to pray. Spend time with God. Bring Him into your stress, your studying, your doubts, and your victories. He is not just part of the “after”—He’s with you in the middle of it all.

He got you here.

And He will get you through it too.

One step, one exam, one day at a time.

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