Oral and Dental Hygienist

The strengths of the Bachelor in Oral and Dental Hygiene

• The 3 first weeks are devoted to familiarising students with higher education, while also settling them in practical terms into their chosen programme: study methods, refresher courses in biomedical sciences, etc.
• The programme uses an active learning approach in which the student is an actor in their own learning. The goal is to promote independent and responsible learning, which are qualities expected of future practitioners.
• The learning activities are taught by practitioners from the profession as well as recognised experts from the medical and allied health care world.

Good to know

The programme is offered jointly by Vinci, HELB Prigogine and the ULB. HELB Prigogine is the lead institution.

The profession of hygienist is a new one. It became a recognised allied health care profession in 2018, which has been developed in Belgium to meet rising demand in the medical sector.

The hygienist’s main responsibility is to provide preventive and high-quality oral and dental health care. Practitioners assist dentists to promote oral and dental health in the community, among the very young and among elderly people, as well as perform preventive and non-invasive curative care intervention.

The hygienist will typically carry out oral and dental evaluations and establish a prevention plan containing a list of the action needed to prevent oral and dental diseases from developing and to optimise the patient’s oral and dental health.

Certain types of care can be performed by the hygienist independently. For example, cleaning teeth and dentures. They also advise patients on oral and dental care.

3 years - 180 credits

The programme includes theory and professional integration activities: seminars, practicals, clinical work placements, etc.