Dental Hygiene

Faculty:
Scrivner - Chair, Corum, Gerecke, Kelley, Leslie, Moore, Rogers, Taubel and White

Mission

Missouri Southern State University Dental Hygiene program empowers students to become life long learners and facilitate the development of ethical and competent oral healthcare professionals, who provide patient care to a diverse population utilizing innovative technologies.

Goals

First, to provide quality education that reflects best practices in dental hygiene in order to become an ethical licensed oral health care professional. Second, to provide comprehensive dental hygiene services to the communities served by Missouri Southern State University. Third, to promote the significance of dental hygiene professional development and commitment to life long learning.

The dental hygienist is a licensed health care professional and member of the dental health team. The diverse duties of the dental hygienist include oral prophylaxis (cleaning); exposing, collecting and evaluating medical history information; performing head and neck screening examinations; periodontal assessment and therapy; applying agents for the prevention of decay; applying desensitizing and antimicrobial agents and administering local anesthesia and nitrous oxide analgesia; and exposing and interpreting radiographs. The dental hygienist acts as a dental health educator and is responsible for teaching patients prevention of dental disease and providing nutritional counseling.

Dental hygiene employment opportunities are numerous and vary greatly. They include general practice and specialty dental offices; federal, state, county and city health clinics; public schools; hospitals; long-term care facilities; dental schools; industrial clinics; the armed services; and research institutions.

Missouri Southern offers an Associate of Science degree in Dental Hygiene. Upon satisfactory completion, graduates are eligible to take the National Board Examination and practical examinations required for licensure in Missouri and other states. The MSSU Dental Hygiene Program is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

Admission to Missouri Southern does not automatically grant admission to the Dental Hygiene Program. In addition to meeting admission requirements for the University, candidates must apply for admission to the Department of Dental Hygiene. Applications are reviewed by the Selection Committee for Dental Hygiene. Applicants must submit the necessary information by January 31. Applicants must have an overall GPA of 2.75 to apply.

Application consideration requires evidence of satisfactory completion of the following prerequisites with a grade of ‘C’ or better:

ENG 0101 - College Composition I Writing Intensive
BIO 0121 - Human Anatomy and Physiology I
BIO 0221 - Human Anatomy and Physiology II
BIO 0231 - General and Medical Microbiology
CHEM 0120 - Chemistry for the Allied Health Sciences
COMM 0100 - Oral Communication
KINE 0103 - Lifetime Wellness
MATH 0030 - Intermediate Algebra (or higher)

Enrollment is limited by selection and applicants are admitted contingent upon a criminal record check, random drug testing, the completion of physical and dental examinations and the rendering of an acceptable health status. Students are admitted to the dental hygiene program only in the fall of each year. As students in a health care profession, Dental hygiene students may be exposed to bloodborne pathogens and infectious diseases.

Students may complete the Dental Hygiene Associate of Science degree in Joplin or at one of two distance sites: Rolla, MO at the Rolla Technical Center and in Sikeston, MO on the Southeast Missouri State University Sikeston Campus.

Lecture courses are taught using Interactive Television, Internet or a combination of these formats. Using the ITV format students interact live with instructors and fellow students at all sites. Each site has a clinic for the clinical instruction experience.

In addition to established fees for all college students, the following are minimum costs incurred by Dental Hygiene students: $500 to $2000 per semester for laboratory fees, various expenses for transportation to off campus clinical sites and professional meetings. In addition, approximately $1500 for licensure exams, which will vary depending on state in which license is desired.

The Associate of Science in Dental Hygiene requires a minimum of 90 credit hours, including the prerequisite courses. Course grades of ‘C’ or above in Dental Hygiene and supporting science courses are necessary for retention in the Dental Hygiene program.

For additional information contact:
Stacy Scrivner
Health Science Building 136
417.625.9373
scrivner-s@mssu.edu

Programs

Major

Dental Hygiene, AS

Courses

Dental Hygiene