Blue Mountain Community College

 Health Services

Intended Program Outcomes:

This one-year certificate program will prepare the student to be effective in the workplace in the following areas:

• Assist dentist with patient treatment
• Radiographic proficiency (exposure, processing, mounting & evaluation)
• Material manipulation (selection, classification, safe handling and disposal)
• Infection control (instrument & room processing to prevent disease transmission, OSHA compliance)
• Business office procedures (computer data entry, scheduling, records management)
• Employment readiness (professionalism, writing skills, ethics, legal & HIPAA procedures)

Upon successful completion of this program, a Certificate in Dental Assisting is awarded. Students must receive a “C” grade or above in all coursework to be considered as having successfully completed the program. The program is accredited by the American Dental Association’s Commission on Accreditation of Dental and Auxiliary Education Programs and by the Oregon Board of Dentistry. Graduating students are eligible to take the Dental Assisting National Board Examination.

Admission Requirements 
Enrollment information is available from the Office of Enrollment Management in Morrow Hall on the BMCC Pendleton campus or online at the website listed below. Completed enrollment application materials will be accepted January 1 through the last Friday in April for admission for the following fall term. (Applications will not be held over for subsequent year’s admission.) Student must have completed or be enrolled in the prerequisite courses before applying for admission to the program. Please refer to the Office of Enrollment Management Website.

Dental Assisting Technician Curriculum
Before Fall term entry, the following courses must be completed with a C grade or higher by the end of the spring term.

Students must present proof of two MMR vaccinations, a negative tuberculin skin test or chest x-ray, initiation of the Hepatitis B vaccination series, and tetanus vaccination,  as well as a current Health Care Provider level “C” CPR card that expires after completion of the program.

Courses within the dental assisting curriculum can be used as the professional/technical credits for the associate degree in general studies. The human relations requirement of this program is met specifically in DA090 Dental Health Education.

(07-08 Curriculum pending approval by Oregon Dept of Education)