Dental Hygiene

The Dental Hygiene Program prepares students for the practice of dental hygiene.  A Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) is a licensed professional who is part of the dental care team, performing such services as oral examination, oral prophylaxis (scaling, root planning, soft tissue curettage and polishing the teeth), exposing dental x-rays, administering local anesthesia and nitrous oxide sedation for pain control, applying preventive substances such as topical fluorides and dental sealants, along with educating patients in preventive oral health care, nutrition, and the link between diet, oral health, and overall general health.  

The Dental Hygiene, Bachelor of Science Degree Program offers academic and clinical skills curriculum within an on-campus clinic. The student is prepared for the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (written), a regional practical examination, and must take the California Law & Ethics exam to gain licensure as a Registered Dental Hygienist.

Due to the rigor of the Dental Hygiene program, admission is based on previous academic performance and other predictors of scholastic aptitude and ability to ensure that students have the potential for successfully completing the program. General education, social science and biomedical science courses included in the baccalaureate degree dental hygiene curricula parallels those offered in four-year colleges and universities. Attention is given to requirements for admission to graduate programs to establish a balance between professional and nonprofessional credit allocations.

The Dental Hygiene Program admits 20 students every Fall semester.  Upon verification of program selection criteria, all qualified candidates will be included in a selection pool.  A lottery selection process prioritizes candidates who take the majority of their prerequisites at one of the Ventura County Community College District Campuses or Santa Barbara City College. After the initial 40 are drawn, interviews are conducted. At the conclusion of the interview process, 20 students are selected for admission. The remaining applicants are placed on an alternate list to fill any available spaces should an admitted student decline a place in the program. Students not accepted must reapply each year.  There is currently no wait list. Enrollment in the program reflects the demographics of the surrounding area. The application period is from January 1^st – March 1^st of the spring semester prior to fall entry.

20 per year

The Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene is a 125.5 semester unit program. The components include the completion of 60 units of required lower division coursework, including coursework mandated by the Commission on Dental Accreditation and the Dental Hygiene Board of California in science and general education, as well as additional general education courses to complete IGETC, CSU GE or Cal-GETC. The upper division portion of the major includes 55.5 units of dental hygiene major coursework and 9 units of upper division general education coursework.

The overall curriculum sequence is designed to allow the students to follow a natural progression from the basic sciences and pre-clinical dental hygiene into increasingly more difficult clinical experiences. Didactic material is presented throughout the curriculum to reinforce evidence-based treatment planning and decision-making skills to assist the students with planning educational and clinical services. Students are provided with a strong background in the dental hygiene sciences which enables them to make sound decisions to successfully provide for the safe and appropriate delivery of oral health services and to effectively educate patients in oral hygiene care, disease prevention, and the connection between oral health and overall health. Biomedical science courses enable the students to understand both normal and abnormal conditions and to recognize the parameters of comprehensive dental hygiene care to assist with treatment planning.

The required courses, in addition to enrichment experiences, help the students to understand patient and group behavior of all age groups and ethnicities as well as those with various medical, physical, psychological, developmental, intellectual, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. The combination of coursework and community outreach provides important background information and cultural awareness for recognizing socialized perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs which may influence treatment planning, patient management, oral hygiene education, patient motivation, and the ability to communicate and work effectively in a global context.

Integrating a liberal and professional education for our graduates fulfills the objectives and philosophy of higher education. The four semesters that make up our full-time dental hygiene curriculum focus on quality teaching with appropriate breadth and depth of biomedical, dental hygiene sciences, and skills taught by the dental hygiene faculty. The curriculum strengths are in providing depth of knowledge, exposure to new knowledge, skill development, technology, diverse experiences, and an array of community service-learning activities. The baccalaureate learning outcomes are based on highly developed and complex levels of knowledge, skills, and understanding to enable students to formulate original responses to complex problems and situations. A Bachelor of Science Degree in Dental Hygiene follows the vision and goals of the California Community Colleges of increasing degree attainment and reducing excess unit accumulation by students, while having no adverse effect on our four-year partners who do not offer programs in the field of dental hygiene.

Healthcare requires an ever-increasing interdisciplinary collaboration. The value of the degree supports the need for dental hygienists to possess a wide range of analytical and communication skills developed in higher education programs. The Oxnard College Bachelor of Science Degree in Dental Hygiene is designed with a dedication to produce competent health care providers to meet the educational and cultural needs of the students, the labor demand of future employers, and to address the increasingly complex oral health care needs of their communities and the dental consumer.

Program Learning Outcomes: 

Upon completion of this program, a student will be able to: 

The courses listed above are not necessarily entry-level. Oxnard College offers courses to prepare students to succeed in these prerequisites. The Dental Hygiene Program requires full-time enrollment. 

Dental Hygiene Program Admission

Students must have an Associate degree with one of the following general education patterns completed (Cal-GETC, IGETC, or CSU GE) as well as the completion of the program prerequisite courses prior to applying for admission to the Dental Hygiene program. A minimum cumulative college GPA of 3.0 is required.  All colleges ever attended must be reported. All science prerequisites must have been completed no more than 5 years prior to application to the Dental Hygiene program and must have been completed with a 3.0 GPA. Consult an Oxnard College Academic counselor for details.