Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene (BA)

Language of study: German

The university programme "Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene (BA)" was accredited by the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria – AQ Austria (AQ Agentur für Qualitätssicherung und Akkreditierung Austria) in its decision on 15 April 2013 and is thus recognized throughout Europe. It is the first university-based programme in dental hygiene at a German-speaking university. The faculty and students of private universities are granted the same rights as the faculty and students of state universities in accordance with Sections 3(6) and 4(4) of the Austrian Private Universities Act (Privatuniversitätengesetz – PUG).

The scheduled reaccreditation procedure, involving an extensive academic review of the university’s organization, teaching and research activities, equipment and faculty, was completed by the state authority AQ Austria at the beginning of August 2014, extending the accreditation of the Danube Private University (DPU) for a period of six years until August 2020. The next routine reaccreditation, a procedure which is required for all private universities, will take place in 2020, after which time the DPU’s accreditation will be extended for a further 12 years until 2032.

Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene (BA) in Three Years

Join the university elite in dental medicine with a Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene

Studying in the Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene (BA) programme at the Danube Private University of Dental Medicine with the young students of the Diploma Programme in Dental Medicine (Dr. med. dent.) represents an outstanding opportunity to learn from the very best professors and senior and assistant dentists and doctors with a high level of recognition. The Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene (BA) academic programme offers graduates an excellent foundation to shape a modern, success-oriented dental practice according to the state of the art and to make themselves indispensable to their dentists and patients.

The many advantages of studying at the DPU include:

• The acquisition of a university undergraduate degree in Dental Hygiene (BA) that is accredited and recognized throughout Europe. The respective country-specific statutory regulations apply for exercising the profession.

• Studying in a familiar atmosphere with prospective dentists at the DPU allows future dental hygienists to enter the high-quality network of the European and global dental elite.

• The Danube Private University of Dental Medicine has all the facilities for practicums (e.g. 48 phantom units, 47 dental treatment units at the DPU Dental Clinic in Krems, etc.) at the university itself and a core faculty of over 45 professors, academic staff, senior and assistant dentists and doctors.
   
• Dental Hygienists trained at the DPU are “first in line” for top employment and job offers from the approximately 630 students at the DPU, most of whom are the offspring of dentists. The over 1,100 practicing dentists enrolled and training in the university’s postgraduate Master of Science specialization programmes have a natural interest in dental hygienists within the framework of their endeavours for preventive dentistry. The same applies for the approximately 5,600 dentists who have already completed the postgraduate programmes and now run elite dental practices around the world. Those who are not interested in employment, but rather freelance activities at dental practices can be put in touch with potential partners from dental practices in search of dental hygienists who have graduated from our Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene programme, by the Danube Private University.

Qualification Profile

Dental Hygienists contribute to the basic conservation of teeth and surrounding bone and soft tissue with their knowledge and practical professional experience. It is their task to ensure primary, secondary and tertiary prevention within the framework of oral medicine. They therefore make an essential contribution to preventive medicine.

The increasing demand for preventive dentistry-oriented dental practices and new fields of treatment in periodontology, implantology, aesthetic-reconstructive dental medicine and geriatric dentistry, as well as the increased level of awareness for prevention, means that patients are increasingly demanding university-qualified prophylactic personnel trained on the basis of European educational standards, e.g. the Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene.

The work of dental hygienists is essentially autonomous, within the framework of responsibilities delegated by the dentist, and forecasts state that it will be impossible to manage the rising level of periodontitis, peri-implantitis and other oral diseases, in industrial nations in the future without them, be it medically or financially. The training for this profession, which offers very favourable earnings opportunities for both dentist and dental hygienist, has already been successfully established in many countries, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the United States.

Dental hygienists work in dental practices, dental clinics, public healthcare institutions, education, research and the dental industry. They perform delegable tasks on patients independently under the medical and legal responsibility of the delegating owner of the dental practice, head of the dental clinic or other medical superior. They bring significant additional revenue to the dental practice; figures based on the experience of innovative dental practice owners suggest potential additional earnings of about 100,000– 150,000 euros per dental hygienist. The dental hygienists themselves can also earn a considerable income based on the performance of the dental practice. A committed dental hygienist understands how to bind the patient to the dental practice through prevention and by winning them over for the innovative services of modern dentistry, thus facilitating the work of the treating dentist and allowing them to invest added time in the more complicated tasks of patient treatment.

The training to become a Dental Hygienist occurs in a three-year Bachelor programme. The Bachelor of Arts in Dental Hygiene comprises 180 ECTS credits.

Upon successfully completing the university programme, graduates are able to exercise the highly qualified tasks of a dental hygienist with the Bachelor in Dental Hygiene degree within the framework of the respective statutory regulations. In addition to working at dental practices or other clinical dentistry institutions, such as university dental clinics, in accordance with the respective statutory regulations of the individual countries, the degree also qualifies graduates to work in many other areas, e.g. teaching, research, administration, public healthcare services or the dental industry.