Admission Steps

Dental Hygiene Technical Standards

Compliance with the title 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act

The following technical standards and essential functions are reasonable expectations of a student in a dental hygiene program for the performance of common functions. In the interest of the student's personal safety and the safety of the CSI patients, there are significant requirements that must be met before admission to the program is finalized. The attendance requirements and stamina demand for dental hygiene students require students to be in good physical and mental health.

Applicants to the program must possess the following general qualities: 

Communication - speech, reading, writing

Be able to:

• Establish rapport with patients, families, and classmates
• Have proficient use of the English language in speech, reading, and writing
• Communicate abilities for effective interaction in verbal, non-verbal and written form
• Obtain and disseminate information relevant to patient care and work duties
• Respect cultural diversity

Visual and Perceptual Skills

Be able to:

• Use binocular vision with discrimination/perception to read anesthesia vials and medication labels
• Have visual acuity corrected to 20/40 or better with the ability to accommodate at a distance of 10 - 20 feet
• Document color vision deficiencies - limited to a single color
• Have visual skills necessary to detect signs and symptoms, body language and infections
• Reading computer screens, documents with small printing and handwritten notations

Hearing and Auditory Abilities

Be able to:

• Have auditory abilities necessary to monitor and assess patient health needs
• Monitors vital signs and auscultation with the use of a stethoscope
• Recognize sounds of alarms or emergency signals
• Correctly interpret Dentist orders, the patient needs or complaints, faculty instructions

Motor Skills - physical ability, coordination, dexterity

Be able to:

• Have a normal tactile feeling. Sensitivity to heat, cold, pain, pressure, etc.
• Have extremely fine motor control with correspondingly hand-eye coordination-hand functions should include rotation, squeezing, and repetitive movements
• Full manual dexterity which includes the function of both arms, both wrists, both hands and fingers
• Have a motor function to elicit information such as palpation, extension, twisting, bending, stooping, pushing, pulling and lifting
• Physically move to a position to enable them to provide dental care and cardiopulmonary procedures
• Possess the strength to assist a patient in transferring themselves to and from a dental chair

Emotional Stability and Personal Temperament

Be able to:

• Have high levels of mental and emotional stability to provide a safe dental environment
• Provide all compliant and non-compliant patients with emotional support and maintain a consistently professional attitude and appearance
• Deal with the stress of the program didactic and clinical demands, while performing multiple tasks concurrently
• Focus in an environment with multiple interruptions, noises, distractions, and unexpected patients' needs

Intellectual and Critical Thinking Skills

Be able to:

• Use critical thinking skills necessary for sufficient clinical judgment
• Have the abilities to measure, assess, calculate, reason, analyze, and integrate information
• Identify cause/effect relationships
• Develop treatment dental care plans
• Problem solve, prioritize, evaluating outcomes and synthesis data for documentation
• Comprehend focus and process information
• Utilize long and short-term memory skills

Admission Process / Packet

Applicants will find admissions and prerequisite information in the Program Admissions Requirements below.

• Program Admission Requirements.
• Admission Form
• Work Experience Verification Form
• Reference Letter Form
• Points Sheet

Post-Admission Process

Health Requirements

Students who have been admitted into the Dental Hygiene program must undergo several health requirements before they enter into the clinical components of their study.

Students are required to have current immunizations. Please refer to the Student Immunization Tracker sheet.

Students will need the following required exams after they are admitted to the program and before clinical rotation begins.

• History and physical exam
• Eye exam (within the last 1 year)
• Dental exam (within the last 2 years)
• Current Immunizations including TB screen
• Drug test
  • Services Request Form
  • St Luke's Campus Map
• Background check