Dental Hygiene Clinic II

Course Description

DEH1802L – Dental Hygiene Clinic II is the clinical companion to DEH1802 Dental Hygiene II, taken as corequisites. Broward College lists it at 4 credits with 192 clinical contact hours — a substantial jump from the 128 hours of the first clinical course, and the term in which most dental hygiene students find the work becomes real.

Broward describes the course as providing "clinical experience in treatment planning, periodontal charting, ultrasonic scaling and comprehensive dental hygiene care," which captures the shift: Level I established the process of care on relatively straightforward patients; Level II takes on periodontal disease as the central clinical problem.

Students treat patients with gingivitis and early to moderate periodontitis, performing full periodontal assessment — probing depths, attachment loss, recession, bleeding points, mobility, and furcation involvement — and translating those findings into a diagnosis, a prognosis, and a treatment plan they present and defend.

Scaling and root planing becomes the core procedure, performed as a defined therapy with an endpoint rather than as a cleaning. Ultrasonic instrumentation is used substantively for subgingival debridement, alongside hand instrumentation with area-specific curettes.

Re-evaluation enters the clinical workflow: students bring patients back, assess tissue response to therapy, and decide whether to re-treat, move to maintenance, or refer to a periodontist. That decision loop is what distinguishes clinical practice from procedure execution.

Many programs also sequence local anesthesia administration here, within Florida's scope for dental hygienists.

Offered at approximately 15 Florida institutions with CODA-accredited dental hygiene programs.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Perform comprehensive periodontal assessment including probing, attachment loss, mobility, and furcation.
• Chart periodontal findings accurately and completely.
• Formulate a periodontal diagnosis and prognosis from assessment findings.
• Develop, present, and obtain consent for a dental hygiene care plan.
• Perform scaling and root planing on patients with early to moderate periodontitis.
• Perform subgingival ultrasonic instrumentation safely and effectively.
• Select and adapt area-specific instruments to tooth surface and pocket depth.
• Evaluate deposit removal to clinical endpoint by tactile and visual assessment.
• Conduct re-evaluation appointments and assess tissue response to therapy.
• Determine whether to re-treat, transition to maintenance, or refer to a periodontist.
• Administer local anesthesia where the program's sequence and Florida scope permit.
• Modify treatment for patients with complex medical histories and medications.
• Apply infection control and ergonomic practice consistently.
• Manage appointment time and adjust plans when circumstances require.
• Document treatment comprehensively in the patient record.

Optional Outcomes

• Apply locally delivered antimicrobials and adjunctive therapies.
• Provide care for patients with implants and complex restorations.
• Provide care for patients with special health care needs.
• Participate in community outreach or public health clinic experiences.
• Provide tobacco cessation counseling as periodontal therapy.
• Use digital charting and practice management software.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Comprehensive periodontal assessment — probing, charting, indices, and radiographic correlation.
• Diagnosis and prognosis — classification, staging and grading, and case-based judgment.
• Treatment planning — formulating, presenting, and sequencing care.
• Scaling and root planing — technique, quadrant therapy, and endpoint determination.
• Ultrasonic instrumentation — subgingival technique, tip selection, and contraindications.
• Area-specific instrumentation — curette selection, adaptation in deep pockets, and sharpening.
• Evaluation of instrumentation — tactile and visual assessment of deposit removal.
• Re-evaluation — timing, tissue response, and the re-treat/maintain/refer decision.
• Local anesthesia — technique, agent selection, and complication management.
• Medically complex patients — treatment modification and medication implications.
• Infection control and ergonomics — consistent practice under increasing time pressure.
• Appointment management — sequencing and time control for multi-visit therapy.
• Documentation — the clinical record as a legal document.

Optional Topics

• Locally delivered antimicrobials.
• Implants and complex restorative cases.
• Special health care needs.
• Community outreach placements.
• Tobacco cessation counseling.
• Digital charting software.

Resources & Tools

• Fundamentals of Periodontal Instrumentation and Advanced Root Instrumentation (Nield-Gehrig) — the instrumentation text used directly in clinic.
• Periodontology for the Dental Hygienist (Perry, Beemsterboer & Essex), Elsevier.
• Clinical Practice of the Dental Hygienist (Wilkins), Wolters Kluwer — the comprehensive reference.
• Student instrument kit including area-specific curettes and a sharpening kit.
• Clinic equipment — operatories, ultrasonic units, radiographic equipment, and sterilization.
• Loupes — magnification, commonly required or strongly recommended by this level.
• American Academy of Periodontology — current classification and clinical guidance.
• Florida Board of Dentistry and Chapter 466, F.S. — scope of practice including hygienist local anesthesia.

Career Pathways

• Dental Hygienist (SOC 29-1292) — periodontal therapy and maintenance are the bulk of practice.
• Periodontal practice hygienist — specialty practice; this level is its direct foundation.
• Public Health Dental Hygienist — county health departments, FQHCs, and school-based programs.
• Dental Hygiene Educator — clinical instruction, requiring additional education.
• Corporate and clinical education roles.

Florida's older population sustains substantial periodontal maintenance demand, making this the most directly employable clinical content in the program.

Special Information

How Florida dental hygiene programs split didactic from clinical

Each level of the program is normally two paired courses — a didactic course and a clinical course taken as corequisites — and the credit counts diverge sharply. Broward College's sequence is representative:

Didactic hours shrink as clinical hours grow. Anyone evaluating transfer credit should compare the didactic-plus-clinical total for each level rather than a single course's credits, and note that some Florida programs run three clinical levels and others four.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Broward College requires DEH1800, DEH1800L, DEH2300 (Dental Pharmacology), and DEH2400 each with a minimum grade of C, with DEH1802 as corequisite. Note that pharmacology is prerequisite here — by Level II students are treating medically complex patients and administering anesthesia, both of which require it.

Fees

Broward lists a $111.00 laboratory fee for this course plus educational/accident and liability insurance charges, on top of tuition and the instrument kit students purchase. Clinical courses carry real costs beyond tuition and students should budget for them across the whole sequence.

Minimum-grade rules and cohort progression

Dental hygiene programs require a minimum grade of C in every program course. Because cohorts are capped by clinic chair capacity and clinical courses run once a year in sequence, a single failure typically means waiting a full year to re-enter, if a seat is available.

Patient requirements are the progression risk

Students must complete defined patient experience requirements at specified difficulty classifications, and at many Florida programs recruiting those patients is substantially the student's own responsibility. Level II raises the difficulty: students now need patients with actual periodontal involvement, which are harder to find than the healthy patients that satisfied Level I requirements. Begin recruiting early.

This is where scaling becomes therapy

The conceptual shift that matters: Level I teaches deposit removal; Level II teaches that scaling and root planing is treatment for a disease, with a diagnosis, a defined endpoint, an expected tissue response, and a re-evaluation to confirm it worked. Students who continue to think of the work as cleaning tend to under-instrument and to skip the re-evaluation decision, which is where periodontal cases are actually managed.