Dental Hygiene
Dental Hygiene- Associate in Applied Science
The Dental Hygiene Program is accepting applications for Fall 2025 enrollment from October 1, 2024, to March 1, 2025. Start your journey toward a rewarding career in oral healthcare today!
Dental Hygiene Admissions Calculator
2025 Dental Hygiene Admissions Procedure Commission on Dental Accreditation Complaint Policy Dental Assisting Webpage Institutional Policy on Distance Education DLH Clinic Manual Dental Hygiene Curriculum Management Plan Public Input Sought for Dental Hygiene Initial Accreditation Site VisitIVCC Dental Hygiene Program Goals:
- Prepare students, through proper academic and clinical educations, to be
qualified dental professionals. - Provide comprehensive dental hygiene care to patients to enhance the clinical education of students.
- Develop health education skills for students and faculty through participation in the delivery of clinical and educational services in the community.
- Utilize skills to assess, diagnose, plan, implement, and evaluate treatment that are essential to the maintenance of patients’ health.
- Instill an appreciation and motivation for lifelong learning and professional
growth in the students. - Utilize problem solving and critical thinking skills to integrate accepted scientific theories and research into educational, preventative, and therapeutic oral health services.
- Use evidence-based decision making to assess and apply health care strategies aligned with arising trends to attain high-quality, affordable and humanistic care.
Students in Illinois Valley Community College's Dental Hygiene Program study assessment; treatment and prevention of oral diseases; electronic dental record keeping and digital radiography; planning community-based oral health programs; advising patients on commercial products, and more.
By your second semester, you’ll begin seeing patients in our on-campus Dental Clinic, which offers preventive services including exams, digital X-rays, cleanings (deep cleanings included), sealants, and fluoride. You will also receive hands-on experiences at offsite locations.
With our 5:1 student-to-teacher ratio, you’ll benefit through personal attention from experienced instructors.
Upon graduation, IVCC's Dental Hygiene graduates are prepared to work in general dentistry, periodontal offices, public health clinics, pediatric offices, and hospital clinic settings. Experienced hygienists may also find employment with retail sales companies and educational institutions.
Dental Hygiene is a two-year selective admissions program. Students must have completed an ADA-CODA Dental Assisting program to apply.
CODA-Accredited Dental Assisting Programs in Illinois:
- Kaskaskia College- Centralia, IL
- Elgin Community College- Elgin, IL
- Lewis & Clark Community College- Godfrey, IL
- Illinois Valley Community College- Oglesby, IL
Welcome to the Inaugural Dental Hygiene Class of 2026!
Course Transferability In and Out of the Illinois Valley Community College Dental Programs
- Program-specific dental courses are not designed to transfer in or out of the IVCC dental programs.
- The IVCC 1+1 curriculum design between dental assisting and dental hygiene requires full completion of an ADA-CODA accredited dental assisting program to qualify for dental hygiene admission. Courses in the completed dental assisting program must be formally evaluated by IVCC dental program coordinators, if courses are being transferred from another institution to ensure that all required dental assisting course content was included to meet IVCC's dental hygiene guidelines.
- Some required dental program courses are considered general education and/or science courses. Illinois Valley Community College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and general education and science courses are designed to transfer out to other regionally accredited institutions. However, course equivalency is determined by the reciprocal institution. IVCC only accepts general education and science courses from regionally accredited institutions, and each course is formally evaluated to determine IVCC course equivalency. We encourage students to work with IVCC academic advisors regarding transferability of specific general education and science courses.
Notice to patients and potential dental hygiene applicants:
Enrolled students and patients are exposed to bloodborne pathogens. These include
(but are not limited to) pathogenic microorganisms present in human blood and have
the potential to cause diseases such as Hepatitis HBV, Herpes, Tuberculosis and HIV.
The Bloodborne Pathogen policy is available by contacting the Dental Hygiene Program.
Accreditation
Commission on Dental Accreditation Policy for Third-Party Comments
The program in dental hygiene is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation and has been granted the accreditation status of “initial accreditation”. The Commission is a specialized accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education. The Commission on Dental Accreditation can be contacted at (312) 440-4653 or at 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611. The Commission’s web address is: https://coda.ada.org/.
The Commission on Dental Accreditation will review complaints that relate to a program's compliance with the accreditation standards. The Commission is interested in the sustained quality and continued improvement of dental and dental-related education programs but does not intervene on behalf of individuals or act as a court of appeal for treatment received by patients or individuals in matters of admission, appointment, promotion or dismissal of faculty, staff or students.
A copy of the appropriate accreditation standards and/or the Commission's policy and procedure for submission of complaints may be obtained by contacting the Commission at 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611-2678 or by calling 1-800-621-8099, extension 4653.
Click to view complete list of CODA-Accredited Dental Hygiene Programs in Illinois.
Meet Your Instructors!
Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene Program Coordinator
Lyndsey Beetz, M.Ed., BSDH, RDH, CDA
Email Professor Beetz
Dean of Health Professions; Dental Instructor
Heather Seghi, MPH, CDA, CPFDA, CFDDA
Email Dean Seghi