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A dental hygienist takes care of patients,
not only from a dental perspective,
from the general oral health perspective.
Oftentimes, we think it's a mistake
and that we just clean teeth.
We were just clinicians, but actually, we're basically
educators and health promoters.
In addition to that, we also take care
of people's overall health.
Because oftentimes, we see diseases
that could occur throughout the body show up in the mouth
first.
Things like diabetes.
Hormonal diseases can also show up in the mouth first.
Changes in the color of the tissue
can alert us to fairly serious diseases.
So we'd want to alert the patient and the dentist
to what we find.
So we just aren't your typical clean the teeth just
to make pretty smiles, although that's one nice advantage
of being a dental hygienist.
But in addition, we're concerned about the person's
overall health.
What brought me to College of DuPage
is their reputation for the Dental Hygiene Program.
They have an excellent pass rate for the State Board exams.
They totally prepare the students
for what to expect out there, and that's something
I wanted to be a part of.
I had quite a few choices in selecting Dental Hygiene
Programs and actually dental schools.
Once I chose to become a dental hygienist,
COD was my top choice because of the pass rates and our boards.
And the facility itself you just can't beat.
I think our facilities are state-of-the-art.
It's just like any dental office--
well, modern dental office.
We have digital technology.
We have our intraoral cameras.
All of our equipment is top notch.
My favorite part is actually being in clinic.
We're seeing real patients with real issues, real pathology,
and we're actually treating them before we're even
getting into the real world.
So I think that's awesome.
The dental hygiene students are provided
with an array of patients.
A lot of our patient population are
people that do not have dental insurance,
so I think the college helps the community in general
by giving patients a place to be seen.
In addition, it gives students great experiences
on things that they might not see
in the typical dental office practice.
I feel like the faculty here are amazing in the fact
that each faculty member has experiences that have really
taught me all along in my interactions with each of them
in our classes and in clinic especially.
A lot of the things that I'm learning now I
had no idea I had to know as a dental hygienist.
We have to know almost everything
a dentist has to know.
I did not realize I would have to be a nutritionist.
I didn't realize I'd be reading into detail as far
as with the x-rays, radiographs, and things of that nature.
It's really in-depth.
It's very rewarding for me because it's helping me
to become a better hygienist.
I think our students are very well-prepared.
In fact, from the information we've
gotten from employer surveys from students that
have graduated and gone out into the community to work,
they've all been very favorable.
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