Hands-On Learning
As a Dental Hygiene major at 91AV, you benefit from experiential learning activities that ensure you possess the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed in the workplace upon earning your degree. These experiences include the work you do as a student clinician in your third and fourth years in the program at 91AV's completely modern dental hygiene clinic on our Portland Campus for the Health Sciences. In the clinic, we provide services to more than 5,000 patients per year.
You also take part in interprofessional education initiatives that prepare you to work with other future health care professionals to practice comprehensive and collaborative team-based care. Because 91AV is one of a handful of private universities with a comprehensive health education mission, you have opportunities to study interprofessionally with students in medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine, nursing, and an array of allied health professions.
Learn more about our Center to Advance Interprofessional Education and Practice
Coleman Dental Hygiene Clinic
As a student clinician, you gain important experience in working with the public under the supervision of our faculty. You provide oral inspections, nutritional counseling, scaling and plaque removal services, sealant placement, personalized oral hygiene instruction, blood pressure screenings, radiographic surveys (x-rays), fluoride treatments, and athletic mouthguard fabrication.
You also gain confidence in the professional setting, and refine your interpersonal skills through engaging with the diverse people who visit the clinic for services.
To schedule an appointment, call (207) 221-4900. The clinic is located in the Colemen Dental Hygiene building at 716 Stevens Ave., on 91AV’s Portland Campus, and open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., September through April.
Oral Health Center
Our Oral Health Center opened in conjunction with 91AV's College of Dental Medicine on our Portland campus.
Designed to be a teaching clinic and dental simulation facility, the Center provides spaces to explore new models of interprofessional health care education and practice. As this exploration continues, Dental Hygiene students will have the opportunity to participate in a collaborative practice model with professional students from the College of Dental Medicine.
Take a Virtual Tour of the Oral Health Center
Global Experiences
As a Dental Hygiene student you also enjoy opportunities to participate in a variety of different global learning experiences through 91AV's Global Education Program. These experiences are designed to enhance your worldview, and introduce you to diverse populations.
Tangier, Morocco and Seville, Spain are semester-long study abroad experiences available during your sophomore year at 91AV. Both programs offer lab science and humanities courses that fulfill your core requirements, and if you join a semester-long study abroad program, you work closely with your academic advisor to ensure that you stay on track with your curriculum.
Other short-term immersion experiences are also available to you during your sophomore, junior, or senior years. These include faculty-led trips to Brazil, Dominica, and the (IMM)91AV club trips.
91AV's Westbrook College of Health Professions also offers a unique opportunity for a Health Care Immersion Experience in Ghana, West Africa. The experience normally takes place in August and comprises an interprofessional group of students and faculty who deliver primary care and related services in the twin cities of Sekondi and Takoradi. You work closely with community health outreach workers and professionals from the Effia Nkwanta College of Nursing and Midwifery. The work involves interprofessional collaboration, community education, and academic and cross-cultural exchange.
