Career opportunities
The Diploma in Dental Hygiene (DDH) program provides you with everything you need to know to become a licenced dental hygienist anywhere in Canada, the US, or Australia. In addition to learning practical knowledge, you’ll also develop your communication skills and professionalism—so you’ll not only be prepared to write the licencing exams, but ready to work in a dental practice the minute you receive your licence.
Dal's Bachelor of Dental Hygiene (BDH) is a one-year degree completion program. This additional education in dental hygiene will prepare you for alternate clinical practice sites, teaching, and research.
The BDH program will also provide the opportunity to go even further with your studies in the field of dental hygiene. As a BDH graduate, you’ll be prepared to work in a collaborative, inter-professional health care environment. The BDH program also offers instruction in and experience with managing diverse practice settings, as well as opportunities to work with an aging population with compromising and degenerative health concerns. You'll also have administrative career opportunities, perhaps in a hospital setting, or in provincial or federal levels of government.
The BDH program will also give you the foundation you need to access graduate studies.
Possible careers in dental hygiene include the following:
- dental hygienist, in a clinic or mobile
- health educator
- health advocate
- dental health policy advisor
BDH student story
- Learning how to be a teacher
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Zahrah Adam, from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, is in the third class to graduate from Dalhousie's Bachelor of Dental Hygiene (BDH) program since its inception in 2008. She plans to go back to Yellowknife and work with her uncle in his dental practice, but she's also thinking about teaching and policy work. Read more about what Zahrah learned in the BDH program, and how she plans to apply her education.
"It's all really good preparation for being in the workforce."
