Dental Hygiene Programs by State

Accreditation is the first filter, not a nice-to-have.

Graduating from a CODA-accredited dental hygiene program satisfies the education requirement for licensure in every U.S. jurisdiction.

It is also the standard route to the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE): students become eligible when their program director certifies them, and graduates qualify with proof of graduation from a CODA-accredited program.

That is why this directory lists only CODA-accredited programs.

The status beside each program is CODA's own term. "Approval without reporting requirements" means the program achieves or exceeds the basic requirements for accreditation, and "initial accreditation" means a newer program has not yet graduated its first class.

CODA is blunt about the one status that matters most: students who enroll after a program's accreditation has been withdrawn "will not be considered graduates of a Commission accredited program" and "may be ineligible for certification/licensure examinations."

The most common route is an associate degree, typically two to three years, often through a community college.

It is the standard route to the Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) license.

A Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene (BSDH) wraps the same clinical core in about four years of college coursework and leads to the same license.

The extra coursework matters mainly for paths beyond chairside care, such as teaching, public health and research.

Already licensed? Degree-completion (RDH-to-BS) programs let a working hygienist add a bachelor's without repeating the clinical curriculum, and because the clinical hours are already done, they are the one part of dental hygiene education that often runs mostly online.

Some universities also offer graduate degrees such as the Master of Science in Dental Hygiene (MSDH).

Offerings vary by school, and graduate study matters mainly for teaching and leadership: CODA's standards require a dental hygiene program's administrator to hold a master's or higher degree, and anyone teaching a didactic course to hold at least a bachelor's.

For which degree to start with, see associate vs. bachelor's in dental hygiene.

CODA also accredits dental therapy programs, a separate allied dental education program with its own directory.

Every accredited program combines classroom science with supervised clinical training: students treat real patients in the program's own clinic under faculty supervision, and some programs add rotations at off-campus sites such as community clinics.

Ask each program how its clinic hours are scheduled, because they run on the clinic's timetable, not yours.

For the coursework, the NBDHE's content outline is a useful guide, since a program director has to certify students as prepared in every exam discipline.

It covers three areas.

The scientific basis for dental hygiene practice spans anatomic sciences, physiology, biochemistry and nutrition, microbiology and immunology, pathology and pharmacology.

The other two are the provision of clinical dental hygiene services, and community health and research principles, the public side of oral health care.

For how long all of this takes, and why "two years" often becomes three, read how long dental hygiene school takes.

Admission requirements are set by each school, not by a national standard.

Most dental hygiene programs expect a high-school diploma or GED plus college-level prerequisite coursework, commonly biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and English.

Minimum grades, how recent your science courses must be, and deadlines all vary by program.

A typical sequence:

A dental hygiene degree is an education credential, not a license.

Licensure belongs to each state.

Most jurisdictions require three things: the education (a CODA-accredited program), a written exam and a clinical exam.

The NBDHE fulfills or partially fulfills the written requirement, though each jurisdiction decides how it accepts the result.

The clinical requirement is usually met through a regional testing agency such as ADEX/CDCA-WREB or CRDTS, or the JCNDE's DHLOSCE where a board accepts it.

See the clinical board exams guide for how those work.

Most states add a jurisprudence exam on state dental law before issuing the RDH license.

Our step-by-step guide to becoming a dental hygienist walks the whole sequence, and dental hygienist requirements by state covers each state's own rules.

Three sources settle most questions. CODA's program search is the live record of which programs are accredited.

The American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) is the profession's national association.

Your state's board of dentistry or dental examiners sets the license you will actually practice under.

For the job itself, from daily duties to where hygienists work, start with our dental hygienist career guide.

Pay is covered in the dental hygienist salary guide, and when you're licensed you can browse dental hygienist jobs at dental practices near you.

Looking for a dental hygienist program in Dallas?

Every CODA-accredited dental hygiene program in Texas, including those in surrounding Dallas–Fort Worth cities, is on the Texas dental hygiene programs page with its accreditation status, address and website.

These are the ones CODA's directory lists in the city of Dallas itself: