College Closed Tuesday Because of Icy Conditions

All Wake Tech campuses will remain closed Tuesday, January 27, 2026. Students taking in-person classes should check with their instructors for more information. Online classes will continue as scheduled. Many Wake Tech services, including Admissions and Academic Advising, are available virtually at virtualsupport.waketech.edu. Wake Tech employees who can work remotely should do so.

Credit Programs

Dental Hygiene

Technical Standards

Students in the Dental Hygiene program must meet the following technical standards. Please read the standards carefully and seek clarification if necessary.

Standard
Examples
Interpersonal abilities sufficient to interact with individuals, families and groups from a variety of social, emotional, cultural and intellectual backgrounds
  • Establish rapport and professionally communicate with patients, families, faculty, staff and fellow classmates
  • Allow mature, sensitive and effective relationships with patients, faculty, staff and classmates
Communication abilities sufficient for interaction with others in verbal and written form
  • Listen attentively
  • Collect assessment data
  • Explain treatment procedures
  • Initiate health teaching
  • Document and interpret dental hygiene actions and client and family responses
  • Document assessment findings and treatment rendered
  • Use appropriate telephone etiquette
  • Perceive non-verbal communication
Critical-thinking ability sufficient for clinical judgment
  • Identify cause-and-effect relationship in clinical situations
  • Integrate, analyze and synthesize data
  • Develop dental hygiene treatment plans
  • Assimilate knowledge from lecture, laboratory and clinical arenas
  • Use basic mathematical skills
  • Draw sound conclusions
Physical abilities and endurance sufficient to move around rooms in the dental environment, maneuver in small spaces, work in enclosed spaces, sit and work chair-side for long periods and reach needed equipment
  • Move around clinical operatories, dark rooms, sterilization room and other treatment areas
  • Position chair-side in close proximity to patient
  • Administer CPR and BLS procedures
  • Reach and move radiographic equipment, which is approximately 5 to 6 feet off the floor
  • Transfer patients from wheelchairs to dental chairs and back, if needed
  • Use repetitive motions with hands, wrists, neck, shoulders and back using gross and fine motor skills for at least eight hours per day
Gross and fine motor abilities, including spatial relations, sufficient to provide safe and effective dental hygiene care
  • Move, calibrate and use equipment and supplies
  • Use ancillary aids chair-side – mannequins, small equipment, etc.
  • Use sharp hand instruments requiring fine motor skills and manual dexterity
  • Use spatial relations to correctly instrument in clinic with use of indirect vision when required
Tactile ability sufficient for assessment and performance of dental hygiene procedures
  • Perform palpation techniques (EO/IO exam, pulse, etc.), functions of a dental hygiene exam and/or those related to therapeutic intervention, such as exploring, scaling and root planning
Auditory ability sufficient to monitor and assess health needs

Hears patients and the following sounds:

  • Emergencies (monitor vital signs)
  • Instruments being properly utilized
  • Slow speed hand piece and ultrasonic scaler
  • Radiography unit monitors
  • Autoclave monitors
Visual ability sufficient for physical assessment, performance of dental hygiene procedures and maintenance of environmental safety
  • Observes client responses, such as skin color and facial expression
  • Notes oral conditions and gingival description to include color changes and pocket depths in millimeter increments
  • Evaluates radiographs for technical quality, including density, contrast and distortion
  • Selects correct end of small instruments
  • Reads small print, including anesthesia vials and medication labels
Olfactory ability sufficient for maintaining a safe work environment and patient safety, as well as recognizing oral diseases
  • Distinguishes smells that affect the safety of the work environment (fire), safety for the patient (tissue burns) and the smell of oral diseases
Professional appearance, attitude and demeanor needed for utilization of intellectual abilities and good judgment in performing the roles of a dental hygienist
  • Present a professional appearance
  • Maintain own physical and mental health as well as emotional stability
  • Maintain a calm and efficient manner within time constraints, medical emergencies and high-stress situations, such as exposure to communicable diseases and contaminated body fluids
  • Demonstrate teamwork and flexibility
  • Demonstrate empathy
  • Maintain ethics and sound decision making
  • Respect cultural diversity
  • Maintain focus in an environment with multiple interruptions, noises, distractions and unexpected patient needs
  • Demonstrate organizational skills

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, "A qualified person with a disability is one who can perform the essential function of a job with or without reasonable accommodation." If a Dental Hygiene student believes that he or she cannot meet one or more of the standards without accommodation or modifications, the college must determine, on an individual basis, whether the necessary accommodations or modifications can be made reasonably.