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The Coastal Carolina Community College Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene Programs actively promote teamwork as the best method of providing dental care to our patients.  The teamwork begins in our facility where both programs share a clinical facility, dental materials laboratory, classrooms, and a locker room.  The dental departments are housed on the first floor of the Health Occupation/Science building.

The Dental Clinic

The Dental Clinic consists of seventeen dental cubicles each containing ADEC patient chairs with side delivery systems.  The clinic also contains two updated operatories for providing patient care.  These operatories were remodeled in 2007 to include rear delivery systems and advanced technology such as intraoral cameras.  Each operatory and cubicle contains state-of-the-art computers with practice management and patient education software.  The dental clinic was designed to maximize infection control procedures.  All items used in patient treatment are either covered with a barrier or disinfected after each use. 

The Infection Control area, newly remodeled in 2008, provides an area to clean, wrap, sterilize and store dental instruments and supplies.  The area is large enough to accommodate several students at once. The most current techniques for infection control are utilized at all times.  The Coastal Carolina Community College dental programs heat sterilize all instruments used in the mouth.  In addition, supplies are either disposable or heat sterilizable.

X-rays are taken on manikins and patients utilizing six dental x-ray operatories in the dental clinic.  The radiology area contains six intraoral x-ray tube heads, one analog panoramic radiography unit and one digital panoramic unit.  Two of the x-ray units are set up with Schick Technology wireless digital radiography systems.  Additional digital radiography will be added as funds become available.

A darkroom containing two automatic processors and two wet-tanks is attached to the dental clinic. 

A Dental Reception area is adjacent to the clinic.  The reception area is used by both the dental assisting and dental hygiene programs.  The dental secretary’s office is located in the clinic reception area. 

The Dental Materials Laboratory

The Dental Materials Laboratory is located across from the dental clinic.  It contains twenty-eight student workstations, a demonstration bench, and a fully functional dental unit.  Two storage rooms are located adjacent to the Dental Materials Lab.  Laboratory equipment includes four bench-mounted lathes, eight model trimmers, and a variety of small equipment such as electric handpieces, drimmel tools, vacuum formers, vibrators and electronic balances.

Classrooms

The dental faculty teach lecture courses in the Dental Materials Laboratory as well as two well equipped classrooms located adjacent to the dental department.  All classrooms include desktop computers and ceiling mounted projectors for use with presentation graphics.  The Dental Materials lab contains a Smart Board.