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Accredited dental hygiene schools prepare students for state licensing exams and certification. Dental hygienists assist dentists with various tasks, including root prophylaxis and fluoride administration. The accreditation process involves six standards, including institutional effectiveness and patient care services, to ensure high-quality education. Regulating dental hygienist programs is crucial for maintaining competent and qualified healthcare professionals.
Accredited dental hygiene schools are educational entities that embrace a curriculum designed to prepare graduates for a state licensing exam, which leads to certification. Due to the amount of information that must be properly covered to ensure that students receive adequate training, only schools that meet the national board’s expectations will be found among accredited dental hygiene schools. If a person wants to join this burgeoning field, he or she must complete a program at an accredited dental hygiene school and obtain a state license.
Dental hygienists are dentists’ right-hand companions, playing a supportive role to professionals responsible for keeping smiles healthy and clean. The scope of hygienic practice is broad, but often includes root prophylaxis, sizing and planning. X-rays, fluoride administration, dental sealants, and sometimes local anesthesia may also be the responsibility of a dental hygienist.
The first committee formed to evaluate each program’s value in teaching these skills was the result of a merger of three organizations: the American Dental Hygeinist’s Association, the National Association of Dental Examiners, and the Board of Dental Education of the American Dental Association. Baseline standards were assembled by this committee in 1947. Five years after approval from a national source of delegates, the first list of accredited schools of dental hygiene was compiled. While this initial list of schools was limited to 21 programs, five revisions over the last 60 years have continually changed the regulations and list of accredited dental hygiene schools. The most up-to-date outline of the accreditation process lists six standards against which a school is assessed.
Each of the six patterns is the framework for even more specific patterns. Standard I is institutional effectiveness, second is the quality of the educational curriculum, and standard III is an assessment of management and staff. The fourth standard upon which a program must meet requirements is the adequacy of support services. Standard V is listed as health and safety provisions, and the last standard claims its name as patient care services.
Regulating programs associated with dental hygienists is important for several reasons. This profession is in the health business, and the responsibility and intimate nature of one’s health leave no room for error. Only competent and qualified individuals should therefore administer health care, and only schools that maintain the highest standards should be involved in training these individuals.
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