|
Contents of your curriculum
Our Bachelor programme Dental Hygiene trains for the profession of an oral hygienist. In the Netherlands, Dental Hygiene can be studied in Groningen, Nijmegen, Utrecht and Amsterdam.
The Bachelor programme in Groningen expressly focuses on cooperating with other dental hygienists, dentist’s assistants and trainee dentists. |
 | Cooperation
Working as a team demands cooperation as part of your curriculum. Hence, the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen and the University of Groningen offer two Bachelor programmes, Dentistry and Oral Hygiene, which are integrated wherever possible.There is also close cooperation with the intermediate vocational course for dentist’s assistants of the Groningen Noorderpoortcollege.
First year
During your first year (in Dutch: propedeuse) you will learn a number of basic dental hygiene skills. You will gain a deeper understanding of the workings of the human body, especially the area of the head and the neck, and you will get introduced to psychology. Apart from that, you will start studying scientific articles and you will reflect on your own actions as a future professional dental hygienist.
 |
Pre-clinic
During your first and second years you will practise your basic dental hygienic skills in the pre-clinic, a room where so-called patient-simulators or mannikin-heads have been placed. During the practical work sessions teaching professional training (and during other lessons, too), you will learn techniques and forms of treatment such as removing tartar, polishing teeth and molars, and both making and judging X-rays. | You will also learn the basics of drilling and you will treat your so-called ‘patients’ as real-life patients in all respects: you will, for instance, be wearing a white suit and you will be working with your ‘own’ hired instruments.
Clinic
During the second, third and fourth years of your Bachelor programme you will treat real patients in the clinic of Dentistry and Oral Hygiene. In the clinic you will be working in teams supervised by tutors. Together with other students of Dental Hygiene from the second, third and fourth years, students of dentistry from higher years and students from the dentist’s assistants’ course, you will learn in a team how to behave in practice.
Information
Apart from gaining practical experience, theoretical know-how remains essential. From the second year you will widen and deepen your knowledge from the first year. In this way, you will, for instance, learn more about the background of certain groups of patients, such as the handicapped, the young and the elderly. One important aspect of your profession will be providing information: during the second year you will be learning more about it. Also aspects like administering anaesthesia or taking X-rays will be dealt with in this phase. |
 |
Fourth year
Treating patients is an important part of the third and fourth years’ programmes. You will learn how to draft and carry out a complex plan of treatment and you will consult with other students of Dental Hygiene and Dentistry in your team. Furthermore, scientific training will be focused on and you will apply professional literature in the treatment of patients.
Specializing and deepening
During the fourth year you can specialize. This entails widening your knowledge based on a certain theme, for instance ‘orthodontics’ or ‘childhood’. You can also do a minor, a course which will widen and deepen your knowledge and does not have to be directly related to your future profession.
Internships
During the second, third and fourth years, a number of (outside) internships have been planned. During an internship you can get in touch with a specific area inside or outside your profession, such as a paradontological practice, a hospital or an institution for the handicapped.
|