Imani Broadnax Lead Dental Hygienist, RDH Greensboro, 27403, United States [email protected] · (336) 555-1306
11 September 2026
Ms. Rosalind Vandergriff Office Manager Torrey Hollow Dental Group Winston-Salem, United States
Application for Dental Hygienist, Torrey Hollow Dental Group
Dear Ms. Vandergriff,
I am applying for the Dental Hygienist post at Torrey Hollow Dental Group. I hold a North Carolina dental hygiene license, number DH-20194466, with local anaesthesia, nitrous oxide and restorative function permits, and public health practice authority granted in 2024. Your posting asks for Tuesday through Friday with alternate Saturdays, and those are the days I am available.
At Ashebrook Family Dental I carry a full column of 9 to 11 adult and paediatric patients a day in a six-chair practice with three dentists. The number I would point to is periodontal case acceptance: I wrote the practice's staging and treatment protocol, and scaling and root planing acceptance moved from 38 percent to 61 percent across two years, with six-point probing charted on every adult patient at every recare visit. I also rebuilt the recare list, which took six-month reappointment at the chair from 64 percent to 88 percent.
I noticed you run a school sealant clinic twice a year, and that is the part of the work I would most want to join. My public health practice authority lets me assess and treat in school and community settings without a dentist on site, and I placed 2,140 sealants on 612 children through a similar program last school year.
My Basic Life Support certification and my license are both current through 2027, and I can give four weeks' notice. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Imani Broadnax, RDH
Summary
A dental hygienist cover letter names the license and the permits layered on it, the days you can work, and one periodontal or recare number that changed. This guide gives you a full adaptable letter, the openings that work, what a new graduate writes instead of production figures, and how to handle a letter for a part-time column.
Dental Hygienist cover letter examples by experience level
A dental hygienist cover letter is a one page letter naming your state license and its permits, the days you can work, and one number from your own column that moved.
Practices hire hygienists to fill specific days. An office manager reading applications is holding a schedule with Tuesdays and Thursdays open, and the letter answering that in its first three sentences gets a call back the same week.
Guide to a dental hygienist cover letter
This guide and the corresponding dental hygienist cover letter example will cover:
- How to structure the letter, paragraph by paragraph
- Why the permits belong in the opening, not the closing
- What a periodontal number looks like stated honestly
- What a new graduate writes instead of production figures
How to write a dental hygienist cover letter
| Paragraph | Its job | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | The post, your license and permits, the days you cover | 2 to 3 sentences |
| Evidence | One column number and one periodontal number, with the period | 4 to 5 sentences |
| Fit | Something specific about their practice, and what you would take on | 3 to 4 sentences |
| Close | Certifications, notice period, thank you | 2 sentences |
The permits are the paragraph, not the postscript
Every applicant for a hygiene post holds a license. What differs is the stack of permits on top, and that stack decides what a practice can schedule into your chair.
The American Dental Hygienists' Association reports that as of August 2025 all states permit dental hygienists to administer local anaesthesia, that 35 states allow hygienists to administer nitrous oxide and eight permit monitoring it, and that direct access, where a hygienist may assess a patient, initiate treatment and provide care without a dentist present, is permitted in a defined set of states (ADHA, checked September 2026).
So name them with state and date: local anaesthesia, nitrous oxide, restorative or expanded function, and public health or collaborative practice authority. "I hold North Carolina local anaesthesia, nitrous oxide and restorative function permits" turns straight into appointment types. "Expanded duties experience" does not.
A dental hygienist cover letter example you can adapt
Dear Ms. Vandergriff,
I am applying for the Dental Hygienist post at Torrey Hollow Dental Group. I hold a North Carolina dental hygiene license, number DH-20194466, with local anaesthesia, nitrous oxide and restorative function permits, and public health practice authority granted in 2024. Your posting asks for Tuesday through Friday with alternate Saturdays, and those are the days I am available.
At Ashebrook Family Dental I carry a full column of 9 to 11 adult and paediatric patients a day in a six-chair practice with three dentists. The number I would point to is periodontal case acceptance: I wrote the practice's staging and treatment protocol, and scaling and root planing acceptance moved from 38 percent to 61 percent across two years, with six-point probing charted on every adult patient at every recare visit. I also rebuilt the recare list, which took six-month reappointment at the chair from 64 percent to 88 percent.
I noticed you run a school sealant clinic twice a year, and that is the part of the work I would most want to join. My public health practice authority lets me assess and treat in school and community settings without a dentist on site, and I placed 2,140 sealants on 612 children through a similar program last school year.
My Basic Life Support certification and my license are both current through 2027, and I can give four weeks' notice. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Imani Broadnax, RDH
Openings that work
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| I am a compassionate hygienist who loves helping patients smile | I hold a North Carolina license with local anaesthesia, nitrous oxide and restorative function permits |
| I am writing to express my interest in your hygienist position | Your posting asks for Tuesday through Friday with alternate Saturdays, and those are my days |
| I have a proven track record of excellent patient care | Periodontal case acceptance moved from 38 percent to 61 percent in two years |
What counts as evidence in a hygiene letter
Most numbers a hygienist can use come off the day sheet rather than a production report, and they are more credible for it.
| Kind of evidence | What it looks like in a sentence |
|---|---|
| Column | A full column of 9 to 11 adult and paediatric patients a day in a six-chair practice |
| Periodontal | Scaling and root planing case acceptance moved from 38 percent to 61 percent across two years |
| Clinical volume | Roughly 15 blocks and infiltrations a week under a local anaesthesia permit |
| Community | 2,140 sealants placed on 612 children in a school year |
Pick one clinical number and one that changed over a period. That pairing reads as a hygienist who watches their own column.
Writing the letter as a new graduate
A new graduate letter cannot carry production figures, so it carries the licensure path instead, step by step: each step has a named body behind it and a date you can give.
Licensure requires a degree from an accredited dental hygiene program and passing written and clinical examinations, with continuing education to maintain it and many jobs also requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Dental Hygienists, last modified 27 August 2026). Name the program's Commission on Dental Accreditation status, then the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination with the year you passed it, a nine-hour examination governed by the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations and accepted in all United States licensing jurisdictions (JCNDE, checked September 2026). Then the clinical examination: the American Board of Dental Examiners administers the ADEX dental hygiene examination, and its acceptance map showed Delaware and Nebraska as the only jurisdictions not accepting it on 6 March 2026 (ADEX, checked September 2026).
Then write clinic as a job: patient appointments completed, periodontal cases among them, radiographic series taken, community rotations, and the local anaesthesia permit if you obtained it at graduation. Finish with your available days.
Name the license number and state in the opening. List the permits by name with their states. Say which days you are available, including evenings and Saturdays. Give one column number and one number that changed over a stated period. Name one real thing the practice does.
Do not write "expanded duties" without naming the permit; a board register names it exactly. Do not claim a permit in a state where you are not licensed. Do not open with compassionate or caring. Do not describe an identifiable patient or case. Do not send a letter that never says which days you can work.
Almost every posting you see is one kind of employer
Offices of dentists employ 94 percent of dental hygienists at a May 2025 median of $98,280, against an occupation median of $98,100, or $47.16 an hour. Offices of physicians employ 1 percent at $91,160 and government excluding education and hospitals 1 percent at $80,830 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Dental Hygienists, last modified 27 August 2026).
The occupation held 225,300 jobs in 2025 and BLS projects 8 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average, with about 15,000 openings a year. BLS also notes that many hygienists work part time, that dentists may hire for only a few days a week, and that some hygienists work for more than one dentist (BLS, last modified 27 August 2026).
That is why availability is not a closing detail. The person reading your letter is filling days, not a headcount.
Length, format and sending it
One page, four paragraphs, 250 to 400 words. PDF unless the practice asks otherwise.
Address a person. The owner or office manager is usually named on the practice's own site, and "Dear Hiring Manager" on an otherwise precise letter reads as a letter sent to twelve practices.
Keep the figures identical to your resume. Our dental hygienist resume example uses the same numbers as the letter.
Key takeaways
- Name the license number and state in the first two sentences.
- List the permits by name and state, because they decide what can be scheduled.
- Say which days you can work, including evenings and Saturdays.
- Give one column number and one number that changed over a stated period.
- As a new graduate, write the licensure path with dates and clinic as a job.
- Name one real thing about the practice and address a named person.
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Dental hygienist cover letter questions, answered
How long should a dental hygienist cover letter be?
One page, four paragraphs, 250 to 400 words. Office managers read these between patients, and length does not read as care here.
Do I need a cover letter if the practice just wants a resume?
Send one anyway. Most hygiene applicants do not, and the letter is the only place to state your permits and available days plainly, rather than leaving an office manager to decode a schedule from your job history.
Should I say I only want part-time work?
Yes, and early. BLS notes that many dental hygienists work part time and that dentists often hire for only a few days a week (BLS, last modified 27 August 2026), so a part-time request is not a disadvantage here. Vagueness is. Name the days.
How do I write about permits when I am relicensing in a new state?
State your current license and permits with their state, then say which permits you have applied for in the new state and where those applications stand. Boards publish license verification, so an office manager would rather know the timeline than discover it later.
What if my practice does not track case acceptance?
Use what your own day sheet holds: patients a day, probing coverage, radiographic series a week, blocks and infiltrations a week, sealants placed, or the recare reappointment rate at the chair. A figure you can explain reads better than a production number you cannot.