Dental Hygiene

Through a combination of classroom learning and hands-on clinical experiences, this program will prepare you to provide comprehensive dental hygiene care to diverse populations in a variety of settings, including private dental offices, schools, hospitals and public health clinics. You’ll gain the needed skills to handle direct patient care, patient assessment, dental hygiene diagnosis and care planning, scaling, root planing, radiographs, preventive measures, sealants, local anesthetic administration, nitrous oxide sedation and customized oral health education.

You’ll learn:

• Current comprehensive dental hygiene services
• How to communicate effectively and professionally with patients, peers and dental health team providers
• Ethical behavior consistent with dental professional conduct
• Current technology relevant to the dental profession
• Basic dental office management skills
• Current concepts of infection control and occupational safety

Accreditation

See program accreditation details at Accreditation.

Related Programs

You may also be interested in our Dental Assisting degree and diploma programs, Health Sciences Broad Field Transfer Pathway, Associate Degree Nursing program, or Practical Nursing diploma program.

Facilities

Explore 360 views of where you'd learn, study, test and practice in this M State program:

Earn a bachelor's degree while you study at M State!

Our Associate of Applied Science degree programs make it possible for you to seamlessly transfer to a four-year college or university to pursue an advanced degree. There are many advantages of beginning your postsecondary studies at M State, including cost savings due to our low tuition rate and smaller class sizes with personalized instruction. Learn more about your transfer options at Transfer Programs and Pathways.

M State partner universities

M State's agreements with Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn., and Minnesota State University Mankato, Mankato, Minn., make it possible for an M State dental hygiene student to earn a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene while working towards an AAS degree at M State.

Students interested in this program should work on their general education/Liberal Arts and Sciences degree while completing prerequisites for the M State dental hygiene degree. Please visit with an advisor about this option.

The Dental Hygiene program has some special requirements for admission. You can apply by following these four easy steps:

1. Apply to M State
2. Review the Dental Hygiene program admission requirements
3. Complete the Dental Hygiene program application (fall 2026 application will be available through Feb. 28, 2026)
4. Review the Dental Hygiene Application Assessment Points Calculator