Dental Hygienist vs Physical Therapist

Measured from each occupation's own live postings: two jobs people weigh together whose postings share too few skills for a readiness score, which is itself the finding. Posted pay favors the physical therapist by about $6k at the midpoint. Everything on this page is read from the two occupations’ own live postings and refreshed every night.

The short answer

$74k–$102kDental Hygienist
+$6kPhysical Therapist, at the midpoint
$64k–$125kPhysical Therapist

On pay, physical therapists come out ahead by about $6k a year at the midpoint of posted bands: $64k–$125k against $74k–$102k for dental hygienists. These are advertised figures from postings that state a salary, not estimates.

On skills, the two sets of postings share too few named skills for a readiness score in either direction. That is the finding: these are different jobs that people weigh together, usually for the pay, the hours or the way in, rather than because one leads to the other. The boards below show what each one is hiring for right now, and the quick answers cover the rest.

Dental Hygienist

Posted pay, middle half$74k–$102k
FieldHealthcare
Postings read352
Open right now11 (1 remote)

Physical Therapist

Posted pay, middle half$64k–$125k
FieldHealthcare
Postings read728
Open right now467 (6 remote)

Switching, both directions

Dental HygienistPhysical Therapist

Not scored: the two sets of postings share too few skills in this direction for an honest number. Run the instrument with your own skill set for a personal read.

Physical TherapistDental Hygienist

Not scored: the two sets of postings share too few skills in this direction for an honest number. Run the instrument with your own skill set for a personal read.

Open dental hygienist roles right now

The freshest dental hygienist openings on the board, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.

See all 11 dental hygienist jobs

Open physical therapist roles right now

The freshest physical therapist openings on the board. Same rules: live, tagged to the occupation, linking to the original posting.

See all 467 physical therapist jobs

See the whole board for both

478 live roles across the two, freshest first, with posted pay and remote flags where the posting states them.

Related comparisons

Which one do your skills favor?

Run the instrument with your own skill set and both readiness numbers recompute for you. Free, no account.

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Quick answers

Which pays more, dental hygienist or physical therapist?

On pay, physical therapists come out ahead by about $6k a year at the midpoint of posted bands: $64k–$125k against $74k–$102k for dental hygienists. These are advertised figures from postings that state a salary, not estimates. By seniority and country: dental hygienist salary and physical therapist salary.

Are dental hygienist and physical therapist the same job?

On skills, the two sets of postings share too few named skills for a readiness score in either direction. That is the finding: these are different jobs that people weigh together, usually for the pay, the hours or the way in, rather than because one leads to the other.

How many dental hygienist and physical therapist jobs are open right now?

Right now our board has 11 dental hygienist openings and 467 physical therapist openings, each linking to the original posting. The board refreshes every night, so the counts move with the market. Hiring the most dental hygienists at the moment: Indian Health Service (2), Military Treatment Facilities under DHA (2), MBR Dental (1). For physical therapists: Physio Swiss (199), iPersonal (40), MediPersonal (17).

Method: each occupation’s salary band is the posted 25th to 75th percentile from its own corpus, counting only postings that state pay; readiness is coverage of the destination’s posting-skill weight; shared skills are read from the overlap waterfall. Pairs sharing too few skills are not scored in that direction. Job lists and counts are the live board. Refreshed with the nightly scrape.

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