Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry

Mission/vision

VCU’s Dental Hygiene Program is committed to academic excellence while promoting accessibility and equity in an inclusive learning environment. The program considers each learner’s unique potential as future clinicians and their impact to humanity through meaningful service. The program will offer exceptional scholarly opportunities empowering students to become ethically competent oral health professionals devoted to scientific inquiry, lifelong learning, and cross-cultural knowledge.  The vision of VCU’s Dental Hygiene Program is to create influential oral health care stewards utilizing emerging technologies, while advocating to eradicate oral health disparities.

Program goals

In pursuit of this vision, the program holds the following goals:

Education

• Develop dental hygiene graduates with the knowledge, skills and attributes to deliver optimal dental hygiene therapies
• Provide students with an interdisciplinary, evidence-based curriculum reflective of current health care modalities
• Educate a diverse population of learners in an inclusive and equitable atmosphere fostering peer-led and self-directed learning, critical thinking, and assessment.

Patient care

• Prepare competent dental hygiene graduates to provide patient-centered, comprehensive, evidence-based dental hygiene therapies in an ethical and professional manner
• Provide clinical education based on a prevention model designed to promote optimal oral and systemic health with an aim to eradicate oral health disparities

Service

• Prepare dental hygiene graduates to respond to the evolving oral health care needs of a diverse society in an inclusive manner by demonstrating a commitment to community engagement
• Provide students with service-learning opportunities in the community that promote the mission of the school, university and profession

Professionalism

• Provide students with the skills to advance the foundation and practice of dental hygiene through a commitment to scientific inquiry and lifelong learning
• Prepare dental hygiene graduates to assume leadership roles in professional organizations
• Gain societal trust by modeling professional behaviors consistent with ethical and legal expectations of the dental hygiene profession

Professional Roles of the Dental Hygienist

The dental hygienist plays an integral role in assisting individuals and groups in achieving and maintaining optimal oral health. The American Dental Hygienists’ Association describes the professional roles of the dental hygienist as a clinician, an educator, a researcher, an administrator and an entrepreneur. Each state practice act outlines the scope of practice for dental hygiene.  Information on practice in Virginia can be found at the Virginia Board of Dentistry.