Dental Hygienist- Good Career?

It seems like there is so many people who have negative things to say about it! I am going to be starting my prerequisites for the Dental Hygienist program next fall, and looking on the Internet some people say "It's not a life time career" or "It's not something you do for life" which I was planning on doing! I don't want to have to go back to school after ten years! My job now is very repetitious but the way I look at it is that it's money. I want to have an exciting life outside of work, and don't necessarily care about having an exciting job, to me, it's work. In addition to that there is the placement issue, I'm from Minnesota and would want to work in a rural area, or at least live in a rural area. If any DDS, RDH, or anyone who knows someone who is could give some advice I would greatly appreciate it!
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My best friend is a DH, she graduated a year ago. DH is definitely a great career to be in. It's part of health care; pays well; can be done on part-time basis; isn't very stressful; and you can work in the field with an Associate's degree. And I think it absolutely is a life-long career, if you're happy in it. Once a DH finds a dentist she works well with, they normally continue to work together for many years, or in some cases, decades. The only major downside I know of is the job market for DH. There just aren't that many openings, and you will limited to dentist's offices (where as someone like a nurse has more options on types of places they can work). It took my best friend about 10 months to find a job, and it's only 3 days a week, and not the pay she was expecting. And like you mentioned, it will be a repetitive career, pretty much the same routine every day. But some people love that. So that's not necessarily a negative aspect.
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