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The Pensacola State College Dental Hygiene program is a competitive and rigorous 88-credit hour one, accepting only 35 students each May, as determined by the program’s accrediting body, according to Dr. Mitzie Sowell, Department Head of Allied Health at the Warrington campus. “There aren’t any other dental hygiene programs around us; the closest one is in Panama City, so we have people coming from [other states]. We also have a contract with the Navy and with the U.S. Coast Guard. Right now, between the two cohorts (first year and second year), we have 16 Navy and Coast Guard students,” Sowell affirmed. The program has a fully functioning on-site dental hygiene clinic that provides preventative dental hygiene services to community members, faculty, staff and students. Currently, there are two full-time faculty members in the program who collectively have about 40 years with the institution. There are also nine adjunct faculty members and a part-time dentist who all work in the community, as well, so it helps the program stay up to date with what dentists need from their hygienists. Dental Hygiene Professor Barbara Varnadore said, “Dental hygiene is a calling. One of my favorite aspects of this job is that moment when [students] ‘get it,’ that lightbulb moment – and that happens often. I had a situation this morning in which there was a little bit of a lack of confidence, and we worked through the patient care, and then it was there.”
The Dental Hygiene Clinic is in Building 3100, Room 3102 on the Warrington Campus, located across the street from the VA Clinic on Hwy 98. Call the Dental Hygiene Clinic at (850) 484-2236 to book an appointment.