GHC COLLEGE DENTAL HYGIENE INFECTIOUS DISEASE POLICY

The Georgia Highlands College Dental Hygiene program encourages applicants who believe they are at risk for serious infectious disease (HIV, Hepatitis B, tuberculosis etc.) to seek appropriate testing and counseling before applying for admission.    All admitted students must comply with Georgia Highlands College immunization policies and clinic infection control protocols. Dental Hygiene policy requires any student who knows or has reason to believe that she/he has a serious infectious disease to report this information immediately to the Director of Dental Hygiene.  Failure to comply with this policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.

Current professional guidelines recommend that HIV- infected and Viral Hepatitis carrier individuals not perform invasive procedures. Most dental hygiene procedures are invasive and students must perform these procedures on patients to complete clinical course requirements.  Therefore these individuals may not be able to complete clinical course requirements for the dental hygiene degree and may want to consider alternative careers.