School of Dentistry
Undergraduate Program

Dental hygiene seeks to understand why some people get preventable oral diseases and why others do not. Risk factors, such as poverty, ethnicity, and education, as well as environment, contribute to perpetuation of these diseases. The dental hygienist observes and defines dental diseases, assesses potential outcomes of interventions, and manages conditions that compromise oral health. As an applied discipline, dental hygiene links its theoretical foundation to behavioral and natural sciences. Using evidence-based science, the discipline seeks to facilitate holistic assessments of individuals and communities and to find solutions to oral health problems. Students in the discipline learn to transfer learning from clinical to community contexts as a means of improving the oral health status among people.

Undergraduate Program

The Dental Hygiene Degree Completion Program offers the following program of study:

• Bachelor of Science degree with a major in dental hygiene.

The UW has no prelicensure program in dental hygiene.

Please note: The dental hygiene program is currently undergoing a major revision. Please contact the program for further details.

Bachelor of Science

Department Admission Requirements

Major Requirements

Students must complete University requirements as well as dental hygiene major requirements. University requirements include a 45-credit senior residency; English, writing, and quantitative reasoning proficiencies; and Areas of Knowledge. The dental hygiene major requirements include a sequence of three dental-hygiene core courses and a minimum of one path.

Completion of the required major and University requirements takes one to two years. Students planning to graduate in one year must have a faculty-approved plan of study within the first quarter of enrollment. Students planning a two-year program must have a faculty-approved plan of study within the first two quarters of enrollment. All students must meet with a program adviser yearly and are encouraged to meet with a program adviser quarterly.

Core Requirement

Students complete a year-long core requirement founded on significant oral health problems and probable solutions within the context of specific communities. Behavioral change, community development, health education models, and scientific literature provide a theoretical foundation for study in the core courses. The core curriculum focuses on real problems in real places. Using a people-places-problems approach, students use Internet and library resources to research, analyze, discuss, and make evidence-based decisions relevant to oral health promotion and dental disease prevention. Further, they explore core values, ethics, laws, and issues related to care access, health promotion/disease prevention approaches, and healthcare delivery models. Included are field activities linked to education, government, business, and health resources. Additionally, dental hygiene majors complete requirements in at least one path and may take electives of their choice to complete the senior residency requirement. All students must complete the three core courses, D HYG 465, D HYG 492, and D HYG 493 (3 credits each, total 9) in the prescribed order.

Path Requirement

Students must select at least one of two pathways to fulfill the path requirement. The options are:

Dental Hygiene Care. This path is for dental hygienists who desire to work as clinicians in hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities or other healthcare services that require advanced clinical and management skills. Students take courses in interdisciplinary health sciences, along with courses that focus on dental hygiene care and management of persons with physical, mental, developmental, and complex medical disabilities. Required courses in oral medicine augment this path. Major requirements include a minimum of 11or 12 credits beyond the core: 10 credits in ORALM 460, or approved alternatives that focus on care of special clients; 3 credits of approved interdisciplinary health science courses; and 2 credits of approved research.

Oral Health Promotion. This path is for dental hygienists who desire to work in multicultural and multidisciplinary settings at the local, state, national, or international levels and who require skills beyond clinical expertise. Students learn about the framework within which societies organize and manage their healthcare services and learn to link health with the environment, people's beliefs, ways of life, and kinship. They learn about differences between Western, Eastern and Shamanistic philosophies of health as prerequisites to developing educational strategies for oral health promotion and dental disease prevention. As students build skills essential for working with health agencies, they participate in community health projects as educators, advocates, or researchers. Activities focus on the health of children and families in rural and remote areas of Washington state. Major requirements for this path include a minimum of 15 credits beyond the core, to include 3 credits in approved interdisciplinary health sciences courses, 3 credits in healthcare delivery systems, D HYG 402 or substitute; 3 credits in health promotion strategies (D HYG 403) or approved substitute; and a minimum of 4 credits in at least 2 sections of D HYG 404 or approved substitutes.

Academic Standards

The School of Dentistry requires that a minimum numerical grade of 2.5 be earned in dental hygiene courses counted toward satisfaction of graduation requirements with a dental hygiene major. Graduation with a dental hygiene major also requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00 for all work done in residence at the University. A student whose cumulative GPA falls below 2.00 in any quarter will be placed on academic probation. While on probation, the student must attain at least a 2.50 GPA for each succeeding quarter's work until the cumulative GPA is raised to 2.00.

Student Outcomes and Opportunities

• Learning Objectives and Expected Outcomes: The UW Dental Hygiene Completion Program emphasizes the health of populations rather than of individuals. Dental hygienists conduct community assessments; develop networks that engage community partners; set priorities; obtain baseline measures; set targets; and measure progress toward solutions to community oral health problems. Dental hygiene core skills include the ability to search and retrieve information from the Internet; use census, geographic, and demographic data; critically assess scientific literature; analyze and interpret data; and apply new scientific knowledge to solutions of health problems. In addition to the core knowledge set, dental hygienists select from two paths of study: care of special populations and oral health promotion. Depending upon area of interest, graduates pursue careers as business managers, marketing specialists, clinic administrators, hospital and nursing home dental hygienists, public health planners, program managers, research assistants, and teachers of dental hygiene.
• Honors Options Available: None.
• Research, Internships, and Service Learning:

  Students in the undergraduate program take off-campus service-learning courses related to their path of study. Generally, sites are located in rural and underserved health provider shortage areas of Washington state, but may include regional, national, or international locations.

  Students are eligible for international programs and exchanges following completion of their core course requirements. An applicant who is a dental hygienist from an affiliated international institution may be eligible for a tuition waiver during one or more quarters of the regular academic year (autumn, winter, spring). Students interested in these opportunities need to contact the program's academic adviser at least six months in advance.

  Majors may be eligible, following the completion of prerequisite courses, to participate in study-abroad programs that focus on health care delivery, oral health promotion, or dental disease prevention. The University and its affiliated sites provide the settings for fieldwork, service, and research activities, and interdisciplinary learning experiences.

• Department Scholarships: Students may apply for scholarships offered by the Dental Hygiene Education fund.
• Student Organizations/Associations: The Washington Rural Health Organization, Washington State Public Health Association, Washington State Dental Hygienists' Association, American Dental Education Association, and International Association of Dental Research are among many from which to select.

Of Special Note: The 90-credit community college transfer limit does not apply to students admitted to this program. The last 45 credits for the degree must be earned in residence at the UW.