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Transcript

[N. YOUNG] My name is Nancy Young. I'm the director of the Dental Hygiene Program. Probably one of the first things that a person should think about is: "What does a dental hygienist do?"

A dental hygienist is an important member of the dental team. He or she works with the dentist, is usually employed by a dentist, and provides preventive therapy and educational services either to patients or to groups and the community, and is the person really who is trying to help the patient or the client develop their own oral healthcare behaviors so that they can prevent dental diseases.

[LAURA] In high school we had a career day and I went and shadowed at my dentist's office. I actually shadowed the assistant, but they were like, "Go look at the hygienists." So I went and watched them, and it seemed very interesting. And I didn't have any previous dental experience working in the office, but just shadowing for the day sparked my interest.

[MICHELLE] I got interested in dental hygiene because I had an internship in my high school. I was able to intern for a dentist for one year, and it made me make the decision to be a dental hygienist. And, I never looked back.

[N. YOUNG] The type of student who tends to do the best in dental hygiene is someone who has a real interest in working with people, who is interested in the healthcare field, who is strong in sciences because many of our courses are science-based courses, has good time management skills. We're looking for critical thinkers. We're looking for people who have great potential to develop a professional ethic where they're really showing a lot of concern and empathy for the patients and clients that they're serving.

[MICHELLE] Something special about clinic, you always have the same faculty around. You don't have the same faculty every single day watching you, butthey are always around you. They see you progress through the program. They help you improve. They're constantly there for you whenever you have a trouble spot.

[LAURA]Working with the patients, I always see a wide variety of patients, and it's always fun and interesting to see a change in our patients after cleaning their teeth especially if they haven't been to the office in years.We see a vast improvement when they come back.

[N. YOUNG] Our graduates have no difficulty finding jobs to meet their needs. Many of them are working part time, and they may be working part time for more than one dentist to work the equivalent of one full-time week.

[MICHELLE] Once you've passed all of the requirements, you start applying for jobs and you can work anywhere. You can work with children. You can work with the general population. You can do a little bit of both.

[LAURA] I think a benefit of the program is we get to work along side with the dental students as well to get a feel for more what it's going to be like in real practice versus just sitting by ourselves working with the patients. It helps us interact and see what it's going to be like when we get out in the real world.