Dental Hygiene awarded grant for new anesthesia course

The Department of Dental Hygiene in the College of Allied Health Sciences was recently awarded a grant by the ADEAGies Foundation to help support a new dental hygiene course. The new course is set to begin in Summer 2025 and will be a five-week course, which will include 60 hours didactic course-work and 60 lab hours.

Suzanne Mathis and Krystal Herring said the $10,000 funding will make the Local Anesthesia for the Dental Hygienist course more interactive and hands-on for students by using anesthesia manikins and facial nerve innervation models prior to practicing injections on their peers.

“We are so excited Georgia has finally passed this for dental hygienists. This skill will only enhance our already sought-after graduates in the job market,” said Mathis, who noted adding the course was necessary after the Georgia Board of Dentistry updated its bylaws on June 1, 2023, to allow Georgia dental hygienists to administer local anesthesia.

Mathis said the process for the grant began in late December, and they were notified in April they had received the grant. Current professors underwent certification on May 15.

Under Rule 150-5-.07, “a dental hygienist under the direct supervision of a Georgia licensed dentist may administer local anesthesia for hygiene purposes, including intraoral block anesthesia, soft tissue infiltration anesthesia, or both, to a non-sedated patient that requires local anesthesia for pain management and who is 18 years of age or older.”

The ADEAGies Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and is committed to improving oral health of the public and advancing innovations in the profession by ensuring strongly qualified future faculty and supporting the development of leaders in academic dentistry. The foundation provides grant funding for research, programs and special initiatives that support dental, allied dental and advanced dental programs, as well as related organizations.

“This grant will allow us the opportunity to teach our students in an innovative way that will ensure clinician confidence and competence, as well as patient safety,” Herring said.