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Dental Hygiene BSDH

College of Nursing and Health Sciences / Dental Hygiene
Undergraduate major / Bachelor of Science

About The Program

Advance your career. Expand your impact. Stay flexible.

The Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene (BSDH) program is designed for licensed dental hygienists who have completed (or are completing) a dental hygiene associate degree from an accredited institution and are ready to take the next step in their education and career.

Offering a Dual Completion Option

Students currently enrolled in an Associate of Science in Dental Hygiene program have the opportunity to begin their bachelor’s degree at the same time through our dual completion pathway.

This means you can:

  • Earn your BSDH while completing your associate degree
  • Save time by avoiding gaps between degrees
  • Build advanced, career-ready skills earlier
  • Graduate better prepared for a rapidly evolving oral healthcare workforce

This option is ideal for motivated students who want to maximize efficiency without sacrificing flexibility.

A Flexible Program Built for Working Professionals

Our BSDH program is delivered fully online by experienced dental hygiene educators, allowing you to continue working while advancing your education.

  • Work at your own pace
  • Minimal restrictions on course progression
  • Designed to fit around your professional and personal commitments

This is not a one-size-fits-all program—it’s built to adapt to your life.

All Dental Hygiene Department programs are grounded in:

  • Academic excellence
  • Community engagement
  • Ethical conduct
  • Social responsibility

The BSDH curriculum is designed to:

  • Expand your clinical knowledge and skillset
  • Strengthen your role as a community-focused oral health professional
  • Increase your career mobility and leadership potential
  • Prepare you for graduate education, including Metro State’s Master of Science in Advanced Dental Therapy

A baccalaureate degree is required for graduate study, and BSDH students can complete MSADT prerequisite coursework as part of this program.

Expand Your Career Opportunities

Completing your bachelor’s degree opens doors beyond traditional clinical roles. Graduates are prepared for opportunities in:

  • Education and academia
  • Corporate and industry roles (sales, training, marketing)
  • School-based and community health programs
  • Public health (local, state, and federal)
  • Healthcare project management
  • Research and program development

If you’re thinking long-term, this degree positions you for leadership, influence, and career versatility.

Why Start Now?

If you already have—or are currently earning—your associate degree, waiting to pursue your bachelor’s costs you time and momentum.

The dual completion pathway gives you a clear advantage:

  • Graduate sooner
  • Enter advanced roles faster
  • Stay competitive in a changing profession

Student outcomes

Individuals studying in the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene program learn to:

  • Utilize critical thinking, problem solving, and evidence-based decision making in the dental hygiene process of care.
  • Engage in collaborative partnerships and professional activities to advance the profession of dental hygiene.
  • Provide relevant and current dental hygiene practices to the patients they serve.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you’re a dental hygienist—or a current student—looking to expand your opportunities, the BSDH program at Metro State offers a flexible, efficient, and forward-thinking path to your future.

Turn your two-year degree into a bachelor’s—without putting your life on hold.

Advance Your Education

How to enroll

Current students: Declare this program

Once you’re admitted as an undergraduate student and have met any further admission requirements your chosen program may have, you may declare a major or declare an optional minor.

Future students: Apply now

Apply to Metro State: Start the journey toward your Dental Hygiene BSDH now. Learn about the steps to enroll or, if you have questions about what Metro State can offer you, request information, visit campus or chat with an admissions counselor.

Get started on your Dental Hygiene BSDH

Program eligibility requirements

Â鶹ֱ²¥â€™s Dental Hygiene program is a degree completion program. Students admitted to our program are licensed dental hygienists or enrolled in an Associate of Science program leading to dental hygiene licensure through one of our community college partners. Admission is rolling and admitted students may enroll in courses in the next available term. Admitted students work closely with their academic advisor to meet university and major graduation requirements.

A clinical component is not essential to BSDH program completion.

Application instructions

Students must submit an Undergraduate University Admissions Application.

The following are also required:

  • Official transcript from an accredited dental hygiene program demonstrating successful completion (or letter from program director or dean if within 15 credits of graduation)
  • Official transcripts of all other college and university coursework
    • Transcripts from Minnesota State institutions will be made available by e-transcripts
  • Cumulative GPA of 2.50 (4.00 scale - calculated from all college coursework)

Courses and Requirements

SKIP TO COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The degree requirements for graduation with a Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene include:

  • A minimum of 120 semester credits are needed for a Minnesota State granted baccalaureate degree. These credits will consist of:
    • Transferable Associate Degree Dental Hygiene coursework
    • Transferable General Education Liberal Studies (GELS) courses
    • Required Â鶹ֱ²¥ Dental Hygiene Major and GELS courses
    • Required Â鶹ֱ²¥ Racial Issues Graduation Requirement coursework
    • Minimum of 30 credits completed at Â鶹ֱ²¥
    • Minimum of 40 upper division credits
  • View University wide graduation requirement information.

Courses

All dental hygiene courses utilize online learning strategies. Online coursework provides flexibility and convenience while completing your baccalaureate degree. Other required courses may be offered using online, hybrid or face-to-face formats.

Requirements (120 credits)

All courses in the dental hygiene curriculum employ online learning strategies. In addition, DENH 420 Restorative Functions requires monthly in-person meetings over the course of the term. Online coursework provides flexibility and convenience while completing your baccalaureate degree.

Students may choose between DENH 340 Educational Concepts OR DENH 420 Restorative Functions to complete degree requirements. Students who are interested in certification in restorative functions and/or applying for the MSADT program are encouraged to complete DENH 420. Contact your academic advisor for assistance.

+ DENH COURSE PREREQUISITES: WRIT 331. In addition, DENH 410 prerequisite is: STAT 201

This course focuses on teams and work environment through the context of individual and group dynamics. Recognizing opportunities for health care professionals to work in collaborative teams will be examined. Students are introduced to tools that may be used to recognize and understand general behavioral and motivational characteristics and how these relate to the success of a team. Topics include personal characteristics, communication, interprofessional collaboration and diversity in workforce teams.

Full course description for Communication and Collaboration in Healthcare

This course is designed to provide an understanding of the latest advancements and emerging trends in the field of dental hygiene. Participants will explore a variety of innovative topics that impact clinical practice, workforce issues and patient care. This course prepares dental hygiene students with the knowledge to integrate emerging technologies and innovative practices into their clinical practice and evaluate the evolving influences of professional organizations on the structure of the dental hygiene profession.

Full course description for Current and Relevant Topics for the Dental Hygienist

The focus of this course is to create a deeper understanding of the dental hygienist's role in the delivery of oral healthcare. Course content weaves in optimization of the oral healthcare work environment, business planning, core public health principles, ethics, and encouraging dental hygienists to involve themselves in public health advocacy and community partnerships. This course will have a significant focus on the effects of race and racism on the delivery of oral healthcare.

Full course description for Management of Oral Healthcare Delivery

The focus of this course is on identifying and analyzing factors that affect access to oral health care across various populations. Students will examine the impact of culture, health literacy and racism on oral health outcomes and the dental workforce. Work is designed to understand the influence of health disparities, inequities and barriers to care on the oral health of communities.

Full course description for Dental Hygiene Care for Diverse Populations

This course involves learning and implementing evidence-based decision making principles. The dental hygiene practitioner will value the integration of clinical expertise and available current external evidence from research. Emphasis is on strategy, methodology, and research design with clinical focus on dental hygiene standards of care, process of care, and dental hygiene diagnosis as related to clinical and community dental hygiene practice. Attention is given to health equity, to include emphasis on cultural competence, racism and health literacy.

Full course description for Evidence-Based Dental Hygiene Practice

This Capstone Course is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to apply their knowledge of a chosen professional role through an individually designed project. Students will apply into practice the knowledge and principles learned within the Dental Hygiene Bachelor of Science courses. Through implementation of both an instructor led and self-directed learning experience (contract) related to their area of interest, students will demonstrate their understanding of the expanding role of the dental hygienist in the health care system. Attention is given to health equity, to include emphasis on cultural competence, racism and health literacy.

Full course description for Dental Hygiene Capstone

The DENH 430 capstone course integrates knowledge from all Dental Hygiene degree completion program courses. It is intended to be the final course in the degree program.

+ Complete either DENH 340 Educational Concepts or DENH 420 Restorative Functions. WRIT 331 is prerequisite for DENH 340.

This course is designed to introduce the student to educational methodologies for effective instruction in dental hygiene education. Topics include an overview of dental hygiene education, teaching/learning styles, instructional methods/strategies, and use of instructional objectives, classroom assessment techniques and evaluation. Attention is given to health equity, to include emphasis on cultural competence, racism and health literacy.

Full course description for Educational Concepts in Dental Hygiene

+ Supporting Courses

Please choose either PHIL 301 OR PHIL 321.

This course covers the basic principles and methods of statistics. It emphasizes techniques and applications in real-world problem solving and decision making. Topics include frequency distributions, measures of location and variation, probability, sampling, design of experiments, sampling distributions, interval estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression.

Full course description for Statistics I

Primarily for students who have completed their writing requirement, but who seek further writing instruction and practice, this course begins with a brief review of the principles of academic writing. It then engages students in the thinking and writing required in various disciplines throughout the university. Students study and practice summary, explanation, analysis, interpretation and other critical strategies used to write essays, reports, research papers, case studies and other texts. The course also emphasizes understanding how audience, purpose and situation shape writing. Students learn how to use a flexible process of writing and revision to complete assignments, and how to respond constructively to the writing of others.

Full course description for Writing in Your Major

What does it mean to be an ethical person? What thinking should guide a person's decisions about doing (or not doing) what is right or wrong? Can we know when something is right or wrong or this only a matter of personal feeling? Do the affluent have moral duties to help the poor of the world with their plight? This course explores these questions and others like them, using a variety of philosophical materials and approaches. It examines major moral theories and related moral dilemmas concerning, for example abortion, economic justice, war and morality, and the moral status of animals. This course also examines ideas about how race, class and gender may affect concepts of ethics.

Full course description for Ethical Inquiry

Is it ever right to try to hasten a patient's death? Should people ever be given medical treatment against their will? How should we decide who will get access to scarce medical resources (like organ transplants)? Do people have a right to get the care they need, even if they can't pay for it? This course will use ethical theories and theories of justice to explore these questions and others like them. It is intended to be helpful not only to (present or future) health care practitioners, but also to anyone who wants to think about these issues, which confront us in our roles as patients and as citizens whose voices can contribute to the shaping of health care policies.

Full course description for Medical Ethics