Dental Hygiene
A career you can smile about.
HCC’s Dental Hygiene associate career degree is a full-time, summer semester entry program that prepares students to sit for the National Board Examination and the Northeast Regional Board Examination for the title Registered Dental Hygienist.
This program will help prepare you to become a dental hygienists: licensed primary health care providers and members of the dental team responsible for the preventive aspects of oral health. The program offers the following:
- Learning through college-based lectures, laboratory assignments, research, and the treatment of patients in a clinical setting.
- Curriculum to teach safe dental and infection control practices to treat a variety of patients through the process of assessment, planning, evaluation, and knowledge of implementation and radiology.
- A program housed in HCC’s Health Sciences Building, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and equipment for hands-on application of classroom instruction.
Dental Hygiene degree students also learn to handle real-life situations by gradually developing their competencies. First, you'll get to work on mannequins in simulation labs, then progress to practicing on student partners, and finally advance to the level of providing dental hygiene services to volunteer patients. This cooperation through HCC's Dental Hygiene Center is a win-win opportunity for patient volunteers from the community to receive high quality, affordable dental hygiene care provided by program students under the supervision of a clinical dentist. Visit howardcc.edu/dentalcenter for more information or to make an appointment.
To learn more about the Dental Hygiene program, including our mission statement, program goals and objectives, visit our program information page.
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Accreditation
The program in dental hygiene is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation [and has been granted the accreditation status of “approval without reporting requirements”]. The Commission is a specialized accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education. The Commission on Dental Accreditation can be contacted at (312) 440-4653 or at 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611. The Commission’s web address is: http://www.ada.org/en/coda.
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AdmissionsStudents interested in this or any other HCC allied health or nursing program should first contact the Office of Admissions and Advising for any requirements and procedures supplemental to HCC's general application and enrollment process. Further information is available from the Nursing and Allied Health Admissions web page, or contacting the Allied Health team at 443-518-4230, alliedhealth@howardcc.edu, or RCF-242.
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Safety PoliciesThe Dental Hygiene program uses standard procedures and best practices to guard against safety hazards like the potential spread of bloodborne pathogens. Further information can be found in the Dental Hygiene Bloodborne Pathogens Policy and the HCC Bloodborne Pathogens Policy documents.