Assists the Director of Dental Services with the coordination of clinic and community dental hygiene program activities. Performs program planning, development, implementation, and monitoring tasks in the areas of patient education, clinical hygiene and preventive services, and infection control. Serves as a technical consultant for dental and other Health Services staff. Provides advanced clinical hygiene direct patient care tasks under the clinical supervision of a dentist. Work includes tasks which the dental hygienist is legally qualified and trained to perform and which are necessary for the efficient delivery of quality dental care.

Major Duties / Critical Tasks:

• Contribute to the success of UTMB Managed Care Organization.
• Plans and coordinates the system-wide availability and accessibility of appropriate inmate oral self-care educational material, inmate teaching aids, and inmate personal hygiene aids for the clinic and community.
• Monitors clinical hygiene and preventive services rendered and makes recommendations as related to staffing; equipment, instrumentation, and supplies; fluoride-containing agents; quantity and quality of services rendered; and staff continuing education needs.
• Monitors clinical hygiene infection control practices and makes recommendations as related to protective attire and barrier techniques; the use and care of sharp instruments; sterilization or disinfection of instruments; cleaning and disinfections of the dental unit and environmental surfaces; and the employment of single-use (disposable) instruments
• Serves as technical consultant on dental hygiene program matters for Regional 
• Dentists, Cluster Dental Directors, Facility Dental Directors, and other Health Services staff; participates in Health Services on-site audits; serves as technical expert for recruitment, hiring and retention of dental hygienists; and participates in Central Office meetings concerning matters related to the dental hygiene program.
• Provides dental screening; performs removal of calculus, deposits, or accretions from the natural and restored surfaces of teeth and dental prostheses; performs root planing or the smoothing and polishing of roughened root surfaces of exposed teeth; performs topical application of caries preventive agents and plaque indexes.
• Serves as member of the Dental Utilization / Quality Review Committee.
• Performs related duties as required.

High school or equivalent. Current Texas licensure as a dental hygienist. Current certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Five years of full time wage earning experience as a licensed dental hygienist. (A bachelor’s degree in a related field from an accredited college or university may be substituted for two years of the required experience.) 

Knowledge / Skills / Abilites:

Extensive knowledge of effective patient education methods for the prevention and control of dental disease at the individual, group and community levels.

Extensive knowledge of current dental clinic practices and procedures in the delivery of clinical hygiene and preventive direct patient care services.

Extensive knowledge of infection control practices which minimize the risk of disease transmission from patient to patient, patient to provider, and provider to patient.

Comprehensive skill in planning, developing, implementing, and monitoring a multi-clinic and community dental hygiene program.

Skill in problem-solving.

Skill in developing and implementing effective training programs.

Equipment: