Lane’s two-year Dental Hygiene program will give you the training and skills to enter into a highly regarded profession. We prepare our graduates for employment in a wide-variety of dental care settings, incorporating lecture with hands-on lab and clinical experiences, as well as preparation for national and state board exams.
Do you have a passion for oral health care? Do you enjoy working with people in a variety of settings? Are you looking for a rewarding and highly varied career? If you have strong communication and critical thinking skills, good attention to detail, enjoy working with your hands and want a team-oriented career with responsibility, then consider Dental Hygiene!
When you’re ready to get started with your program prerequisites, just apply to Lane! Our Admissions office staff will guide you through the steps to enroll to get you started right. You can also contact Admissions with any questions you have about the college, to schedule a tour of the campus, or just to say hello. If you’re not ready to apply today, you can request more information on the program and we’ll get in touch to make a plan that works for you.
The Dental Hygiene Program is a concentrated two-year course of study that includes online, classroom, and dental clinic and clinical laboratory learning. All lecture courses are taken in sequence and include:
- Infection Control and Safety
- Dental Anatomy and Histology
- Oral Biology, Roentgenology and Oral Pathology
- Pharmacology and Local Anesthesia
- Periodontology
- Community Dental Health
- Restorative Functions
- Expanded Practice Functions
- Current trends and issues
The first year of the program includes 6-14 hours per week of lab, pre-clinical and clinical instruction. The second year of the program includes 17-22 hours per week of clinical instruction.
Through your clinical courses, you’ll learn to:
- Conduct initial dental assessment exams for new dental patients, and communicate findings to dentists
- Thoroughly review patient health history, contraindications for care and other health concerns
- Conduct intra/extraoral exam, periodontal evaluation and develop treatment plans for patient dental needs
- Remove plaque and tartar from teeth with hand and ultrasonic instrumentation techniques
- Apply fluoride and sealants to prevent dental decay
- Treat gingivitis and periodontitis and provide instructions for perio-maintenance
- Classify periodontal disease and administer sonic and hand scaling techniques
- Utilize diagnostic and panoramic x-rays and digital imaging
- Take dental impressions
- Assist dentists with restorative procedures like placement of fillings, local anesthetics and dental care techniques
- Directly administer local anesthetics/nitrous oxide to patients and implement periodontal procedures, using Non-Surgical Periodontal Treatment strategies
- Electronically document treatment plans and care performed on patients
- Educate patients on proper brushing and flossing
- Provide nutritional counseling for patients experiencing high-risk decay rates
- Learn prevention of blood-borne diseases, and application of OSHA standards in the dental environment
- Learn and practice Dental Hygiene Expanded Practice functions under Oregon state law
- Develop skills in interpersonal communication and collaboration to effectively interact with diverse populations and age groups, health care providers, dental professionals and community groups
- Apply principles of ethical reasoning, decision making, and professional responsibility
- Learn restorative dentistry skills while providing dental fillings to children and adults in preparation for employment in busy dental practices
Experiential learning is an important aspect of the Dental Hygiene program. As a student, you’ll be able to participate in off-campus experiences with community clinics, school-based screenings, presentations for health fairs, treatment of specialty populations at distance clinical sites, and inter-professional collaboration and visitations to local specialty and general dentistry offices/clinics.
Dental Hygiene courses are limited to a maximum of 20 students. Your clinical lab courses will have a ratio of just one teacher to five students, to ensure you receive individual attention while developing your clinical skills. Dental Hygiene instructors get to know you, and they provide you with the personal attention required for mastering the clinical skills and helping you finish the program successfully. Our faculty have extensive clinical and teaching experience, and they bring those experiences to the classroom. Throughout your experience at Lane, you’ll never take a class with more than 40 students, and your class will always be taught by an instructor, not a grad student.
The faculty and advisors for the program can help you meet your career goals. They can answer any program specific questions you might have, and help you find opportunities outside of the classroom. Advisors will help you schedule your classes and plan for the future. You’ll work with them to create a term by term planner that meets your needs and goals to ensure you complete your degree. And if you’re planning on transferring to a four-year school they can help you take the classes you need to count towards your bachelor's degree.
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Academic Advisor -
Academic Advisor
During summer term between your first and second year, you’ll have the opportunity to take an optional Cooperative Education internship in Clinical Dental Hygiene at Lane’s dental clinic.
As a Dental Hygiene student, you’ll use state-of-the-art dental equipment in our brand-new dental lab on Lane’s main campus, and gain experience and confidence at the college Dental Clinic on Willamette Street in Eugene. Some of the equipment you’ll use includes:
- Ultrasonic and sonic instruments for periodontal care
- Intraoral camera for visual documentation and teledentistry communication with community dental clinics
- Eaglesoft electronic patient records management system; utilizing electronic record documentation to facilitate distance communication with dentists
- Intraoral polishing with Prophy Jet equipment
- Portable dentistry units to provide dental services to underserved populations.
Lane’s main campus is tucked into the foothills of the Oregon Cascades, providing a stunning landscape for your education. With incredible resources on campus like advising, tutoring services, the library, First Year Experience and so many more, you have the opportunity to make the most out of your degree. Lane also offers student housing at Titan Court in downtown Eugene, next to our Mary Spilde Center. Ready to learn more? Schedule a campus tour to explore our beautiful campus and amazing facilities.