Dental Hygiene

Dental hygiene programmes train the licensed clinicians who do most of the preventive work in a dental office — assessing and charting periodontal health, removing calculus and stains, taking and reading radiographs, applying preventive agents, and teaching patients how to keep their own teeth. Two years, entirely cohort-based, and among the most competitive admissions in a Florida college.

The degrees this program covers

This is an associate-degree field and the data leaves no room for doubt: all 342 Florida completions in the 2023 federal award year were ASSOCIATE degrees, across 18 public institutions. One bachelor's programme exists (St Petersburg College) and awarded nobody that year — it is a completion degree for licensed hygienists moving into education, public health or research, not a route in. ⚠ Two things surprise applicants. FIRST, the associate degree is much bigger than 60 credits: Indian River State College's is 88, because the clinical hours and the dental science sequence sit on top of a full general-education core. SECOND, the sciences are unusually heavy for a two-year programme — chemistry, anatomy and physiology, microbiology and nutrition are all required, with a grade of C or higher, and several must be finished by fixed points in the first year. ⚠⚠ Admission is limited-access and decided largely on those grades.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Dental Hygienist

Dental hygienists are licensed clinicians who assess and treat the gums, remove calculus and stains, take and read radiographs, apply preventive agents, and teach patients to look after their own teeth. ⚠ A median of $98,100 on a two-year associate degree — the highest of any two-year route on this site. ⚠⚠ Florida licenses the work under Chapter 466 and requires THREE separate examinations on top of the degree. ⚠⚠⚠ Admission is the hard part, not the coursework: 18 public programmes in the whole state, all limited-access.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Dental Assisting 28 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The programme people most often confuse with this one, and the difference decides a career. Dental assisting is a certificate, taught mostly at technical colleges on clock hours, and it is NOT advanced standing toward hygiene — a dental assistant who wants to be a hygienist starts the two-year programme at the beginning. ⚠ It is still the commonest way people discover the field, and it is far easier to get into: 28 Florida institutions against 18, and no competitive science sequence.

Radiologic Technology 23 Florida schools

The closest comparison on structure: a two-year, limited-access, cohort clinical programme at the same colleges, with a similar science load and the same competitive-admission arithmetic. ⚠ The differences are the setting and the hours — a hygienist works in a dental practice, usually on a predictable weekday schedule, while a radiographer works a hospital rota. Both take radiographs; the training and the credentials do not transfer between them.

Florida public institutions offering this program

18 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Bachelor's. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Broward College

Associate

Daytona State College

Associate

Eastern Florida State College

Associate

Florida SouthWestern State College

Associate

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Associate

Gulf Coast State College

Associate

Hillsborough Community College

Associate

Indian River State College

Associate

Miami Dade College

Associate

Palm Beach State College

Associate

Pasco-Hernando State College

Associate

Pensacola State College

Associate

Santa Fe College

Associate

South Florida State College

Associate

St Petersburg College

Associate · Bachelor's

State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota

Associate

Tallahassee Community College

Associate

Valencia College

Associate

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.