Program overview
Program goals and objectives
- Prepare competent healthcare professionals: Educate students to become competent, critically thinking dental hygiene professionals who promote health and disease prevention.
- Provide equitable and quality care: Educate students to deliver equitable, inclusive, and culturally appropriate dental hygiene care for diverse populations with cultural humility, based on current standards of practice.
- Foster ethical conduct: Develop students who maintain high standards of ethical conduct in their behavior among students, faculty, administrators, and staff that will transition to professional practice.
- Support lifelong learning: Provide a learning environment that supports student success and encourages the pursuit of lifelong learning.
- Deliver an evidence-based curriculum: Offer a curriculum that incorporates evidence-based research, innovations, interprofessional collaboration, and the use of technology in dental hygiene practice.
- Promote professional service and leadership: Instill the value of active membership in professional organizations and prepare students for leadership roles in clinical practice, public health, education, research, administration, and advocacy.
Scope of practice
Student scope of practice according to the setting
A dental hygiene student is not allowed to practice dental hygiene duties outside of PCC educational facilities or PCC’s affiliated educational facilities, and it is strictly prohibited by the Oregon Board of Dentistry. Students must be officially registered for the clinic course in order to practice patient care during PCC clinic or affiliated site sessions.
Dental Hygiene scope of practice
Students are trained to practice at the highest level within the scope of practice for dental hygienists in Oregon. For detailed information on the scope of practice in Oregon, please visit Chapter 680 of the Oregon Revised Statutes regarding dental hygienists.
The scope of practice for dental hygienists varies from state to state. Dental hygienists may only legally perform clinical procedures that are within the dental hygiene scope of practice for the state they are practicing in with a valid license.
Clinical procedures within the traditional dental hygiene scope of practice are legal to perform in most states. Traditional clinical procedures include performing oral health assessments; exposing, processing, and interpreting dental radiographs (x-rays); removing plaque, calculus, and stain from the teeth; applying preventive materials including fluoride and sealants; teaching patients proper oral hygiene techniques; and counseling patients on maintaining optimal oral health.
Clinical procedures that are considered expanded functions may or may not be legal in each state and may or may not require an additional credential beyond initial licensure. Expanded function clinical procedures may include: administering local anesthesia; administering nitrous oxide-oxygen sedation; prescribing preventive agents and medications related to dentistry; placing temporary restorations; and placing permanent restorations.
Students in the Dental Hygiene program will learn to perform the clinical procedures outlined in the Oregon Board of Dentistry Dental Practice Act. These clinical procedures are not currently legal in all states. Graduates should only perform clinical procedures that are legal in the state in which they practice and only if they have the appropriate credential.