ABSTRACT
The first dental hygienist on record was in 1906 and the first dental hygiene courses began in 1913 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In those early days, full academic courses ran for a duration of one year with dental hygiene students only permitted to remove “lime deposits, accretions, and stain” on teeth above the gumline. 1 Fast forward to today, and the roles of the dental hygienist have vastly improved. Graduates can now earn associate, baccalaureate, and master's degrees in dental hygiene with emphasis not only on removing said accretions from the teeth above and below the gumline, but to now having a full understanding of how the body reacts to such accretions and the necessary measures for disease prevention for both the patient and the clinician. 1
