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“Who’s going to see Thursday’s hygiene patients?” That’s the question running through your head the moment an RDH gives notice, or a position you’ve been trying to fill sits open another week.
We know that tension well. A temporary hygienist can keep your schedule moving while you continue your search, and that same shift can give you a real-world look at whether the professional is the right fit for your practice.
⏱️ In a hurry? Here’s the short answer.
You don’t have to pause your permanent RDH search just because you need coverage now.
Temporary hygienists can help keep patients on the schedule while you continue looking for the right long-term hire. Better yet, a temporary shift can act as a working interview, giving both the practice and the hygienist a chance to experience what working together is actually like.
At Cloud Dentistry, 60% of temporary professionals are hired permanently, so the next RDH you bring in to cover a shift could potentially become the permanent team member you’ve been looking for.
Key takeaways
- A permanent RDH search can take time, but your practice can continue seeing patients while you recruit.
- Rescheduling hygiene patients can affect production, patient access, and team morale.
- Temporary hygienists can bridge the gap while you continue recruiting for a permanent position.
- A temporary shift can show you things a resume can’t, including chairside manner, work ethic, professionalism, and how someone handles real patients.
- The working interview goes both ways. Hygienists get to decide whether your practice is somewhere they want to work long term, too.
- 60% of Cloud Dentistry’s temporary professionals are hired permanently.
Table of Contents
Why wait for a permanent hygienist when your schedule can’t?
When you lose an RDH, finding a permanent replacement naturally becomes a priority.
But the patients already scheduled don’t disappear while you’re recruiting. The American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute has reported that 91% of dentists actively recruiting hygienists describe the process as very or extremely challenging, and hygienist searches typically run 30 to 90 days, with more than one in five stretching past six months. A quick fill often isn’t realistic.
You might reschedule patients until you fill the position. Or you might keep reaching out to professionals one by one, hoping you land the right person quickly.
Either way, you can end up losing production while the search continues. Temporary coverage gives you another option. Instead of leaving the hygiene chair open while you recruit, you can bring in a temporary hygienist to cover the schedule and keep looking for the permanent fit.
One of our dental hiring experts sees both approaches regularly: some offices reschedule patients while they search, while others bring in temporary hygienists specifically to protect the schedule during the recruitment process.
💡☁️ Cloud Tip: When you’re comparing the cost of temporary coverage with leaving a hygiene column open, don’t look only at the temp’s hourly rate. Consider what you’ve already invested in getting those patients onto the schedule, and what happens to that production if they’re rescheduled.
Turn a temporary shift into a working interview
A resume can tell you where a hygienist has worked. An interview can tell you how they communicate. A shift lets you see how they actually work.
A temporary hygienist gives your practice a firsthand opportunity to observe:
Chairside manner
How do they communicate with patients? Do they make patients feel comfortable? Can they explain recommendations clearly?
Work ethic
How do they approach the day? Do they stay engaged and manage their responsibilities without constant direction?
Professionalism
How do they interact with your patients, your doctor, and the rest of your team?
Handling pressure
How do they respond when the schedule gets tight, a patient needs extra attention, or something doesn’t go according to plan?
Team fit
Do they communicate well with assistants, front office staff, doctors, and other hygienists?
These are all important parts of a permanent hire, but they’re difficult to evaluate from a resume alone.
💡☁️ Cloud Tip: Before a temporary shift begins, decide what you actually want to learn about the professional. Maybe it’s whether their charting is detailed enough for the next person to pick up seamlessly, how quickly they adapt to your specific protocols without being told twice, or if they show up on time and prepared. Having a few specific things to watch for can make the experience more useful than simply asking yourself afterward, “Did we like them?”
And remember: the hygienist is interviewing you, too
“Is this somewhere I actually want to work?” The hygienist is asking that question just as much as you are. A working interview runs in both directions.
That’s important because many dental professionals want to experience an office before committing to working there permanently. A temporary shift lets them see things that are difficult to understand during a traditional interview:
- How well the office stays on schedule
- What the patient population is like
- How the team works together
- Whether the equipment and systems are up to their expectations
- How the doctor communicates with the clinical team
- Whether the pace and working environment suit them
One of our dental hiring experts puts it simply: a permanent hire is most successful when the relationship is a mutual fit. You need to like the hygienist. The hygienist needs to like you.
That makes a temporary shift valuable for both sides.
💡☁️ Cloud Tip: Pay attention to the questions a temp asks about your practice, too. What they want to know can tell you a lot about what matters to them in a long-term position, and whether your practice can deliver it. A temp who asks about growth opportunities or CE support, not just the hourly rate, is often someone thinking past a single shift.
What happens when you find the right fit?
Sometimes a temporary shift is exactly that, temporary. And that’s okay. You can continue using temporary coverage while searching for your permanent hire. But sometimes, partway through a shift that’s going really well, a different thought creeps in: “Wait, what if we just kept them?”
Even when the answer is “not yet” or “not for this role,” it’s worth favoriting their profile. You’re not just saving a good temp for a repeat shift. You’re building a shortlist of people who might be exactly right for your next permanent opening.
One of our dental hiring experts told us this is the most successful way they’ve seen offices fill an RDH role in today’s market. The professional gets to experience the practice, and the practice gets to experience the professional.
At Cloud Dentistry, 60% of temporary professionals are hired permanently.
Not every temporary shift turns into a permanent hire, and that’s fine. Each one still does double duty: keeping today’s schedule moving while you look for tomorrow’s permanent team member.
💡☁️ Cloud Tip: If both sides are interested in making the relationship permanent, don’t wait for the temporary arrangement to simply evolve on its own. Use the conversation after the shift to talk through expectations, schedule, compensation, benefits, and what each side is looking for in the long term.
How to use temporary staffing while recruiting
Recruiting and temporary coverage work well running side by side, not one after the other.
1. Keep recruiting for the permanent position
Continue interviewing candidates and looking for the person who fits your practice’s long-term needs.
2. Use temporary coverage to protect the schedule
Let temporary coverage cover the open shifts while you search, so patients don’t have to be automatically rescheduled.
3. Treat the shift as an opportunity to learn
Pay attention to the professional’s patient interactions, communication, work ethic, clinical approach, and relationship with your team.
4. Have “The talk” afterward
If the shift went well, have an honest conversation. The hygienist may be interested in staying permanently. If they’re not, you’ve still kept your schedule moving while continuing your search.
The cost of waiting can be more than the cost of a temp
“We need a permanent hygienist, so we don’t want to spend time or money on a temp.” It’s an understandable position when you’re already spending time and resources recruiting for a permanent employee. But one of our dental hiring experts put it this way: “A temp isn’t a distraction from finding the right hire. It’s what protects the practice while you look.”
Waiting has costs, too.
When hygiene patients are rescheduled, you can lose:
- Scheduled production
- Patient access
- Team efficiency
- Momentum with patients who were already booked
One of our dental hiring experts often sees practices underestimate how long a permanent search can actually take, then lose production and team morale while they wait it out. Some choose to reschedule rather than bring in temporary coverage, and the result is the same: the practice loses production from patients who were already scheduled while the permanent search continues.
A temp and a permanent search work fine running at the same time.
💡☁️ Cloud Tip: If your permanent search has already been going on for weeks, don’t let the fact that you’re “almost there” keep you from protecting the schedule in the meantime. Hiring timelines can change quickly, and your patients shouldn’t—and often won’t—wait for the perfect candidate to appear.
What if you’ve never used a temporary hygienist?
It’s normal to have questions about bringing someone new into your practice. “What experience do they have? How has their work been reviewed by other practices? Have they been vetted and completed a background check? Will they actually be a good fit for our patients and team?”
Those are reasonable questions.
Cloud Dentistry gives practices access to professional profiles, peer reviews, and vetting information to help offices make more informed decisions when selecting temporary professionals. And once a hygienist is working in your office, you have something no profile can completely provide. You have firsthand experience working together.
Frequently asked questions
How can I recruit a dental hygienist faster?
One option is to use temporary hygienists while continuing your permanent recruitment. This lets you keep your hygiene schedule moving while you take the time to find the right long-term candidate, rather than rushing the search or leaving the chair empty. It also gives you a practical way to meet more professionals, some of whom may turn out to be a strong fit.
Can a temporary dental hygienist become a permanent employee?
Yes. Temporary work can lead to permanent employment when both the practice and professional decide the relationship is a good fit. At Cloud Dentistry, 60% of temporary professionals are hired permanently, which means a shift booked to cover a gap can end up solving your recruitment search entirely, without you ever posting a separate job listing.
What is a working interview for a dental hygienist?
A working interview allows a dental hygienist to work in your practice while both sides evaluate the fit. It gives you a better understanding of the hygienist’s chairside manner, professionalism, work ethic, patient interactions, and ability to work with your team—details that rarely come through clearly in a resume or a single interview conversation.
Why use a temporary hygienist while recruiting?
Temporary coverage can help you continue seeing your scheduled patients rather than rescheduling them while a permanent RDH search is underway. It can also give you an opportunity to evaluate potential long-term candidates in a real working environment, which is often more revealing than a resume or interview alone. Many practices end up filling the permanent role this way.
What should I look for when evaluating a temporary hygienist?
Consider more than clinical experience. Pay attention to chairside manner, communication, professionalism, time management, patient interactions, and how well the hygienist works with your existing team. One shift is a snapshot, not the full picture, so if something feels off, it’s reasonable to see how a second shift goes before drawing firm conclusions.
The final bite
Finding the right permanent RDH can take time. Your patients don’t have to wait for the search to end.
Temporary staffing can give your practice coverage while you recruit, and sometimes, the temps working in your office can become the permanent hire you’ve been looking for. Permanent search and temp coverage move together. One buys you time. The other buys you information. “We don’t want to spend time or money on a temp” is usually the quickest way to spend more of both, waiting.
Keep the schedule moving. Keep recruiting. And give both sides a chance to see if the fit is right. ☁️ New to Cloud Dentistry? Create a free office account today to start exploring our platform firsthand.
Continue learning
Recruiting one RDH is rarely a one-time project. Here’s where to go next.
Temporary Dental Staffing: Benefits, Best Practices, and How to Keep Your Practice Fully Staffed
Learn how temporary staffing can help your practice handle call-outs, vacations, hiring gaps, and changing staffing needs.
Temp-to-Perm Hiring: Why More Practices Are Making Permanent Hires from Temps
See how temporary work can create a pathway to permanent hiring when the practice and professional are the right fit.
Explore a broader approach to building a dental team that supports retention, flexibility, productivity, and long-term practice growth.
See the full Search → Book → Post → Interview → Hire workflow this article is built around, including typical hiring timelines by role.
