About B Oral Health/Dental Hygienists

Hi,
For those of you who are unfamiliar with what exactly studing oral health or what a Dental Hygienist does, I am a first year B Oral Health student. The kinds of courses we cover in the program are human bioscience, head and neck anatomy-with a focus on the oral cavity, health promotion-and epidemiology, an intro to health science-learning about other allied health professionals and academic writing, periodontology, caries and pain control, oral and ill health, oral health and special needs groups, occlusion, statistics for the sciences, etc. The course involves clinical practice and work placement as well as a promotion project.

A dental hygienist is primarily concerned with preventative dental care. They work along side a dentist giving oral hygiene information including dietry advice. They are able to perform preventative treatment such as scale and root planning, radiography, local anesthesia, mouth guards and fissure sealents.

Thanks,
Karina.

Hi Karina.

What is a 'B' oral health student? Is there an "A' oral health student? Are they different courses?

Bachelor of Oral Health, I believe, Steve.

DDuuuhhhh!! Thanks Phil. I'll just switch my brain back on now.

Yes, thanks Philly-I was referring to Bachelor of Oral Health. Perhaps I should have have been more clear. Don't worry Steve, we all have those moments.

Hi Karina
As a relatively new grad of BOH (2006) i have to say that the BOH opens many doors for their graduates. Aside form DT and DH.

Karina, have you had the opportunity of treating patients yet??? I recall that here at the U of Adelaide, we started in second semester of 1st year. It was such a great feeling to start putting to practice the things one learns in the various lectures/tutorials and clinical practice sessions.

I'd be interested to know how you progress through the course, and will be happy to assist in any way that you may need help.

Take care, hope to chat to you soon,

KostasOHT

Hi KostasOHT,

Unfortunately the course progression is alot slower at the university of Newcastle. We don't start seeing patients until the second semester of 2nd year. We are doing head and neck anatomy this semester, but I think we don't do caries and pain control-local anesthetic-til 2nd sem 2nd yr and that is when we start seeing patients.

The course in Adelaid is only two yrs, correct?

I am really looking forward to seeing patients. We are only just being introduced to the clinic now, but it's more about infection control and taking medical history etc so I still have a while to go.

I did really well last semester but this semester we have statistics which is meant to be the most difficult course of all. Thanks for offering to assist with any queries that arise, thats very kind of you.

Thanks,
Karina

Karina,
The BOH course in Adelaide is 3 years (otherwise it would be a diploma or something similar).
Stats are not too difficult, it just requires a little lateral thinking. I should know, im using stats and data analysis at the moment for my BScDent honours project.

The offer still stands re assistance.
Take care,

KostasOHT

Hi,
wow, I didn't realise it was a three yr course in Adelaide. We were all under the impression around here that it was a 2 yr course. Thats very interesting, but it makes sense when a diploma is 2yrs. I believe there was a student in my yr considering transferring because it was a shorter programme. We thought they combined some of the courses which seem to overlap a little. But thanks for correcting me on that.

Yeah, i'm sure I will find stats ok, I think the lecturer's and higher yr students just like to scare us.

Good luck with honours.

Karina

Hullo all,
when you say that a hygienist works along side the dentist, do you mean they consult in each other when diagnosing, analysing radiographs...etc?
Or do they work in the same clinic, but in different rooms?
Or do they both work on the same patient together?