Caroline F. Mason, RDH, M.Ed. Director, Dental Hygiene Program Professor LSUHSC School of Dentistry Division of Dental Hygiene, Box 134 1100 Florida Avenue New Orleans, LA 70119 Phone: 504-941-8156 Email: cmason@lsuhsc.edu

The LSUHSC School of Dentistry (LSUSD) offers a bachelor of science in dental hygiene at two campuses. The main campus for the dental school is in New Orleans; all didactic and clinical course work for the dental hygiene program occurs on this campus. The second campus, established in 1999 as an extension of the LSUSD curriculum, is in Lafayette, Louisiana.  LSUSD uses distance learning technology to transmit all of the lecture courses to the Lafayette campus.  All didactic and clinical course work occurs at the Lafayette Community Health Care Center.

The philosophy of the dental hygiene program is to educate dental hygiene students to provide comprehensive, current and quality-based care to all segments of the population. The program continually strives to maintain an environment in which students can acquire knowledge, develop critical thinking skills and become responsible, ethical professionals who value lifelong learning.

The specific goals of the dental hygiene program are the following:

1. Prepare the students to be competent as defined by the program document, "Competencies for the LSUSD dental hygiene graduate."

2. Maintain admissions policies to ensure qualified candidates.

3. Utilize current educational methodologies and information to ensure an educationally sound curriculum.

4. Provide quality individualized patient-centered dental hygiene care.

5. Review the curriculum to ensure it is relevant and current.

6. Educate students to successfully complete the national board and clinical licensure examinations.

7. Design experiences for students to provide dental hygiene services to diverse populations within the community.

8. Encourage student and faculty participation in professional association activities.

9. Engage students and faculty in scholarly activities.

The dental hygiene program is an integral part of the dental school since the dental hygiene faculty educates both dental hygiene students and dental students to provide dental hygiene care as part of comprehensive dental treatment. Dental hygiene and dental students take pain control classes together, collaborate with each other on the needs of their shared patients and learn to respect the contributions both professions make to the team concept of dental treatment.

The dental hygiene program is integrated into all aspects of the dental school. Access to state-of-the-art educational technology, involvement with outcomes assessment, concurrent involvement of dental hygiene students with dental students in extramural rotations and the inclusion of faculty in all faculty development activities and committees are just a few examples of an institution that strives to meet the needs of both the dental and dental hygiene curricula.

View rosters of full-time and part-time faculty in the Division of Dental Hygiene.