Managerial role development of the dental hygienist in initial patient interactions

In 1985, the American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) identified six roles for the future of dental hygiene: change agent, health promoter/educator, clinician, researcher, consumer advocate, and administrator/manager. As part of the role definition implicit in the identification of these roles, dental hygienists must enlarge their view of themselves as clinicians and realize the importance of these six roles in total patient care. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the dental hygienist's managerial role in initial patient interactions and to identify skills essential to manage this responsibility. This paper also examines different teaching strategies that could be used by dental hygiene educators to enhance managerial role development.