Dental Hygienist Schools

Dental Hygienist Schools - Options For Dental Hygiene Programs

If you want to work side by side with a dentist to provide a variety of oral health care, you will need to look into dental hygienist schools. You will train to clean teeth, provide preventative measures, take x-rays and create molds. In order to begin your dental hygiene programs, you need to have the appropriate requirements to get into the school of your choice.

Prerequisites for Schooling

You must be at least 18 and have completed high school or have a GED. In high school, you must have taken classes in English, biology, chemistry and math, and maintained at least a C average.

Additionally, for some bachelor degree programs, you will be required to have completed 1-2 years of college and perhaps additional classes in sociology, speech and psychology before being eligible to apply. Look into the specific conditions of the dental hygienist school of your choice.

Degree Options

To become a dental hygienist, you can get a certificate, but generally you need to complete a minimum of a 2 year associate's degree at a community or vocational college. This will enable you to practice in a private dental clinic, but it will not allow for you to further your career much more than that.

You can instead opt for a 4 year bachelor's degree program, followed by an option 2 year master's degree course. You can take your bachelor's degree at a university, where you will study things like psychology, sociology, nutrition, biology and chemistry as part of your core prerequsites.

Taking this 4 year course therefore gives you a broader range of study and enables you to pursue a career in administration, teaching, research or clinical practice in the school system. Additionally, you can get a job in a hospital or public health clinic on top of government programs.

Licensing

Licensing is mandatory in all states to practice as a dental hygienist, so first you will need to take the state clinical exam, and then pass both a written and clinical component of the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination.

Your state may even require you to pass a legal exam, so check into the specific obligations and rules your state has. Once your national certification is obtained, you can use the title Registered Dental Hygienist or RDH.

To maintain your licensure, you will also need to take continuing education credits from dental hygienist schools or online every 1-2 years, but the amount of credits varies per state, so check into your state requirements to see if you will need something around 12 or closer to 30. Once you've done the work and become certified, don't let it go to waste.

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