Are there any ways of studying - or, even better, just challenging the exams for - the theoretical parts of dental assisting or dental hygiene by distance? It is quite proper that you shouldn't actually be licensed to practice without practical training/experience, but surely people in full-time employment in other fields should be able to study the theoretical bits in advance of considering a change of employment? It's not always possible to attend even a part-time course if you have a demanding full-time job. Thanks, Andrew
Dental studies There are a few dental assisting programs availiable by distance learning. Here are the top 3 in my opinion. The first coice would be monroe community college in NY http://www.monroecc.edu/ This program is accredited by the ADA in addition to RA and will give you the most utility in meeting state requirments if dental assisting is regulated in your state. In addition they include some of the hygiene courses in the assistant curriculum. Rio Salado College in Arizona offeres a distance learning Dental assisting program. This is a RA community college. There is a restriction on What dentist you can use for your clinical experience. But this looks like a decent program. http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/ci/programs/dental_asst.shtml Education direct offeres a dental assisting program. It has DETC accreditation and RA for the vocational programs. Clinical experience is optional not required. THis program will probably not meet requirments for various states if dental assisting is regulated. http://www.educationdirect.com/ Dental Hygiene is tougher. I am not aware of any full distance learning programs. There are degree completion programs and indivigual courses. But I was not able to find a full program when I was looking a little over a year ago. Hope this helps, Jeremy
