Whether at home or in a dental office, dental hygiene refers to the process of cleaning our teeth and maintaining the health of our teeth and gums. Thanks to the efforts of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association, October has been celebrated as National Dental Hygiene Month since 2009 to promote the importance of oral health. See this blog post if you’re interested in learning more about the evolution of dental hygiene.
Most of us are familiar with the role of the dental hygienist as the indispensable dental office team member who provides a variety of dental disease preventive services and teaches us how to care for our teeth and gums at home. Have you ever wondered how your dental hygienist prepared for his or her career?
In 1913, Alfred Fones created a school in his carriage house basement to train the first cohort of dental hygienists. Over time, as dental professionals advocated for the need for preventive care and instruction and dental science learned more about the connections between oral health and general health, the number of duties that dental hygienists performed and the associated training expanded considerably. Varying somewhat from state to state, training requisites now include completion of an accredited dental hygiene training program, passing board examinations, meeting licensure requirements and fulfilling continuing education requirements.
Because everyone deserves a healthy smile, we award grants to increase access to dental care. I refer often to shortages of dental professionals in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, especially in rural areas. This includes a shortage of trained dental hygienists. One of our giving priorities is to invest in colleges and universities that are training dental hygienists and to support continuing education programs offered by state dental hygienist associations.
You might be interested to know about the programs available to train dental hygienists, particularly if you or someone you know is interested in exploring this as a career option. Here are thumbnails by state and links to more information:
Maine
The University of Maine in Augusta (UMA) offers a three-year Associate in Science in Dental Hygiene degree. with the option of completing additional training in its Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene program.
New Hampshire
NHTI-Concord’s Community College offers a three-year dental hygiene program leading to an associate degree. Established in 1970, it’s the only degree program training professional dental hygienists in the state. River Valley Community College (Claremont, Keene and Lebanon) offers a pre-dental hygiene certificate program designed to prepare students to apply to the NHTI Dental Hygiene program by giving them one year of foundational college courses.
Vermont
The Vermont State University Dental Hygiene program offers a three-year Associate of Science degree, with a final year of online training to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Dental Hygiene.
More information on preparing for a career as a dental hygienist can be found on the website of each state’s dental hygienists’ association:
Maine: mainerdh.org
New Hampshire: nhdha.org
Vermont: vdha.org
Directly or indirectly many of the grants we’ve awarded to expand the workforce of dental professionals have aided dental hygienists including programs that help expand dental education clinics, and provide much needed dental equipment for training.
Many dental hygienists provide services in dental offices, but others work in clinical settings, at schools and with public health agencies.
Let’s appreciate our dental hygienists all year round and, especially in October, thank them for contributing to our oral health.