Hygienists, what is your day like?

My first job out of school consisted of seeing 4 patients an hour, and that was with assistants taking x-rays and disinfecting, preparing while I jumped from op to op. I didn't write my notes until lunch or the end of the day. I quit because it wasn't right.

My second job... two patients an hour, no assistant, I take x-rays and disinfect/prepare room and write notes in lunch for at end of day. I polish first, followed by cavitron and then use hand instruments. I reschedule those who need anesthesia and focus on OHI and do perio charting. Otherwise, I always hope for cancellations and don't have time to update perio or do OHI.

I have applied to many jobs out there and am still stuck in this mill for a reason. Because I need the money and there are no jobs. Yesterday alone I applied to 4 more jobs an hour away. I was told by someone in the temping agency to sell yourself whenever you first temp. To shine, stand out. Because dentists will either make you their favorite or never call you again. The reason there are no jobs is because hygienists are holding on to these jobs and these temp jobs are given to dentists' favorites. If you don't stand out, the temp agency will keep note and offer a job to a newbie who hasn't been evaluated or to a favorite. I have been in dental power since last year and I was only called once (I was just new and performed prophy on everyone).

So, fellow hygiene friends, for those who have two patients every half hour like me (with no assistant), how do you manage? Does the dentist tell you to do the best you can and finish in one appt? Or are they the caring kind and let you arrange as many necessary appts if the patient needs quad scaling? I haven't yet encountered an office where someone has done quad scaling. And unfortunately, many offices are moving to 30 minute appointments.

I love the profession but hate my job. I would be happy with an assistant but they place business first instead of quality of care.

Yes I have also worked 2 patients an hour (so every 30 minutes). The patients at the office I worked like that were used to not really having their teeth cleaned well. I learned how to be efficient and work fast. I do not take time to talk to the patients except to ask them about their health status in the beginning. I did not have an assistant to help me. The only reason I continued to work at that job was because I was only part time...1 day or 1/2 a day a week. I could not handle that schedule more than 1 day a week because it is very stressful doing double the patient load in a work day. AND I only got paid per patient, not per hour. So if someone didn't show up I didn't get paid for that patient. And it was stressful when patients showed up 10-20 mins late for a 30 min appointment! Now I had about 20 mins to clean their teeth and I would have to run over time into the next appointment.
Randomly some patients would call and complain that I was too rough with them when I barely touched them. I realized it is because the other hygienist wasn't cleaning their teeth well. She really just does a supra gingival cleaning and polishing the fact that some patients would tell me that "they have NEVER bled before during a cleaning" and I barely touched their gingiva! Sadly I had to work fast and not try to get every little bit of calculus off because the patients aren't even used to a real good cleaning or else they would COMPLAIN about me when I was doing them a service better than they have had before! Basically it was like a gross debridement. I would say they were getting a 70-80% cleaning/removal of calculus. Not because I didn't want to do more but because there is not enough time (especially if you need to take xrays!) and because the patients aren't used to thorough cleanings and would complain about me being too rough on their mouths. I have had other hygienists at other offices clean my teeth (and same with family members of mine) and they were way rougher.