Dental Hygiene, A.A.S.

In the traditional role of dental hygienist, training includes prophylaxis, patient data gathering for dental hygiene diagnosis and treatment planning, fluoride treatment, sealant application, radiographic examination, and nutritional counseling. In the expanded role of the dental hygienist, training includes treatment of periodontally-involved patients and treatment of handicapped, institutionalized, and other medically-compromised patients. You also learn to perform local anesthesia and administer nitrous oxide. Because of the high level of personal and professional responsibility required of a dental hygienist, you must have integrity, maturity, individual motivation, good interpersonal skills, excellent manual dexterity, and a solid science and general studies academic background to be successful in this program. The program is firmly committed to fostering intellectual growth and to developing well-qualified dental hygienists with high professional standards and ethics.