Dental Hygienists are credentialed and licensed health professionals who serve integral roles in the delivery of health care, including preventive dental services, nonsurgical periodontal instrumentation, patient/family/community education, nutritional counseling, and tobacco cessation referral. They are caring people who enjoy being with others and working with their hands. They have good communication skills and an ability to teach.
Our students participate in community clinical rotations as well as campus and extramural activities, learning to effectively communicate with groups and individuals from diverse populations in an empathetic manner.
Clinical duties include:
■ Take and record dental and medical histories
■ Perform oral examinations
■ Assess dental hygiene treatment needs
■ Scale and polish teeth
■ Apply topical fluoride
■ Prepare diagnostic casts
■ Perform root debridement
■ Expose and process dental X-rays
■ Place temporary restorations
■ Apply sealants
■ Provide patient education
Augusta University dental hygiene graduates enter the profession able to:
■ Provide accurate documentation of the assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation,
and evaluation phases of the dental hygiene process in patient care and community
settings for the promotion of health and prevention of disease,
■ Relate the dental hygiene process of care to the research process by using critical thinking and problem solving in evidence-based practice within accepted standards of care,
■ Contribute actively to the dental hygiene knowledge base by presenting scientific research,
■ Advance the dental hygiene profession and establish social networks through service activities and affiliations with professional organizations,
■ Identify the various roles of dental hygienists and alternative career options available in health care institutions, industry, education, and research,
■ Adhere to the professional Code of Ethics, state and federal laws, and institutional policy in the provision of dental hygiene care and other endeavors where applicable, and
■ Perform self-assessment for life-long learning and professional growth.
