A license count describes the people who hold a Florida dental hygienist license. It cannot tell a clinic how many of them will consider its opening. In FaroHire counts dated August 3, 2026, Miami and Tampa each fall in the band of more than 2,500 licensed hygienists, and Orlando falls between 1,001 and 2,500.
What does the license count actually count?
The profession in this article is Dental Hygienist, as Florida names it in its license records. We group those licenses by geography and publish bands instead of exact totals. Each band covers every license in that data, including hygienists with no interest in changing offices.
A license record holds no preferred schedule and no commute limit. It cannot say whether a person wants temporary shifts, a permanent position, or to be left alone. Those answers belong to the hygienist. A clinic looking at a map has learned something about the licensed population nearby, and has not yet spoken to anyone in it.
Location needs the same care. The county on a license record is not proof of where the person works today. A move, or a long drive to a practice two counties over, can separate the two.
What do the metro bands look like?
| Metro | Licensed dental hygienists |
|---|---|
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | More than 2,500 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | More than 2,500 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | 1,001–2,500 |
Source: FaroHire, August 3, 2026.
Two metros in the same band need not have the same total, and the table does not say whether Miami or Tampa has more. Subtracting the endpoints of two bands would produce a number the table never reports, so we leave that arithmetic undone.
Is a license holder a candidate?
Not yet. A license says the person may practice. It says nothing about whether they read their mail, whether a message would reach them, or whether they want to hear about a vacancy. Calling every license holder a reachable candidate would skip several steps nobody has measured.
Those steps also apply before any outreach starts. Someone who has asked not to be contacted stays off the list. A license may need a fresh status check. The job may sit outside the person's area or the kind of work they do. Quoting the statewide size of a profession settles none of that.
Why does the employment estimate look different?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate for dental hygienist employment in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford is 1,490, from the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release. FaroHire counts from August 3, 2026 place that metro in the band of 1,001 to 2,500 licensed hygienists. The two figures measure different populations at different times.
BLS estimates how many people are employed in the occupation. The license counts describe who holds a license. A hygienist can be licensed and work part time in a role the estimate does not capture, or live in one metro and work in the next. Our figures do not say which of those explains the gap in any given place.
Subtracting BLS employment from a license band does not produce an unemployment figure. Dividing one by the other does not produce candidates per opening. The Florida salary article covers the wage side and keeps it apart from any claim about who is looking for work.
What does the public map leave out?
Our public county and metro tables have a floor of 11, as stated in the public salary-data files. A cell below that gets no public count. Above it, ranges stand in for exact totals.
The floor exists so that a small town on the map cannot be used to work out who holds a license there. The map has no search for an individual.
When a public count is missing, read it as missing. It does not mean nobody practices in that area.
What can a clinic use this information for?
Use the bands to describe the area you are hiring in. Then write down the address and the schedule, so a hygienist can judge the drive and the hours for themselves. A license record never had that information.
When someone answers, talk about the work and whether the posted hours fit their week. Confirm current license status with the Florida Board of Dentistry before an offer. Leave out guesses based on a name or an address.
The license density tool shows the same bands for a particular part of Florida. It gives geography, not a forecast of how many people will reply.