New Mexico Dental Hygienist Salary

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions considers the outlook for the dental hygiene field in the state to be a bright one. It reported the median 2013 dental hygienist salary in New Mexico to be $69,680. Experienced dental hygienists in the state earned $81,470 on average, while those entering the workforce averaged $48,880.

The average entry-level dental hygienist salary in New Mexico varied tremendously between workforce regions in the state.

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There was a $20,575 difference in the average salaries of entry-level dental hygienists in the northern workforce region versus those in the central part of the state:

Workforce Region
Entry-level
Experienced
Central
$41656
$73570
Eastern
$56668
$80009
Northern
$62231
$88763
Southwestern
$51953
$89563

Dental Hygienist Job Growth in New Mexico

The number of dental hygienist jobs in New Mexico is projected to increase by 2.1% a year between 2012 and 2022. This rate of increase is 1.9 times greater than that projected for New Mexico occupations as a whole.

Job growth in New Mexico’s major metropolitan areas is projected to be lower than the state’s average. The exception is the Albuquerque area. The field of dental hygiene there is projected to increase 2.5% between 2012 and 2022.

An additional 226 jobs are forecast for New Mexico during this period. Half of them will be in the Albuquerque area. Thirty percent of the projected New Mexico dental hygienist jobs will be outside of the major metropolitan areas. The Farmington, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe areas combined will only produce 19.5% of the state’s new jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides 2013 New Mexico dental hygienist salary information for both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas of the state:

Area name
Employment
Annual mean wage
Albuquerque NM
350
62930
Farmington NM
60
77350
Las Cruces NM
110
71610
Santa Fe NM
70
71190
North and West Central New Mexico nonmetropolitan area
70
87150
Eastern New Mexico nonmetropolitan area
200
72230
Los Alamos County New Mexico nonmetropolitan area
30
86950