Lone Star College-Kingwood Dental Hygiene Program Manual 2016-2017 Updated on 4.23.

2017

COMPETENCIES REQUIRED OF GRADUATES OF THE LONE STAR COLLEGEKINGWOOD DENTAL HYGIENE

PROGRAM (Defined)

In order to graduate from the Lone Star College-Kingwood Dental Hygiene program, a student must be competent in the
following areas:

Providing comprehensive dental hygiene care for the child, adolescent, adult, geriatric, and special needs patient.

This competency is divided into 4 distinct areas, assessment, planning, implementation & evaluation.

Assessment:

 Obtain, review and/or update and interpret an accurate medical history and vital signs.
 Perform an extraoral/intraoral examination accurately noting both normal and abnormal conditions present.
 Evaluate the periodontium and identify conditions that compromise periodontal health and function and accurately
records the results.
 Evaluate the dental history completing dental charting of existing conditions and current oral hygiene habits.
 Identify the need for radiographs, obtain diagnostically correct radiographs and distinguish normal from abnormal
anatomical findings on the radiographs and accurately records the results.
 Complete risk assessments including oral cancer, caries & periodontal disease.

Planning:

 Analyze and interpret data to formulate a dental hygiene treatment need related to and congruent with the
diagnosis of the dentist and other health professionals.
 Determine goals and establish expected outcomes related to the needs and desires of the patient and the dental
hygiene treatment need.
 Design a care plan with a sequence of educational, preventive and therapeutic services and based on the dental
hygiene treatment need.
 Obtain consultations and make referrals as appropriate and to the appropriate professionals.

Implementation:

 Provide comprehensive dental hygiene care by applying basic and advanced principles of dental hygiene.
 Educate patients to prevent and control risk factors that contribute to caries, periodontal disease and other oral
conditions.
 Utilize accepted infection control procedures.
 Apply basic and advanced principles of dental hygiene instrumentation to remove deposits without trauma to hard
or soft tissue.
 Control pain and anxiety through the use of accepted pharmacological and behavioral techniques.
 Provide adjunct Dental Hygiene Services that can be legally performed in the State of Texas.

Evaluation:

 Evaluate the outcomes of dental hygiene interventions using indices, instruments, examination techniques, and
patient self-report as specified in the patient goals.
 Compare actual outcomes to expected outcomes, reevaluating goals, diagnoses and services when expected
outcomes are not achieved.
 Evaluate a patient’s satisfaction with the oral health care received and the oral health status achieved.