This innovative program enables Arizona residents to receive necessary dental care through a low-cost, dental hygiene-based approach.

Providing oral health services to residents of long-term care facilities is another option for expanding the role of dental hygienists.

Place-based care in schools is an additional practice setting for dental hygienists.

The University of southern california Ostrow school of Dentistry runs two mobile dental clinics dedicated entirely to providing preventive services for lowincome children.

Efforts are underway to add a doctoral level to dental hygiene education.

Dental hygienists with an interprofessional education are able to provide patient care in concert with nurse practitioners, physical therapists, physicians, and other health care providers.

Expanding the function of dental hygienists is shaping the profession's future. 

The federal government, academic administration, research, and organized dental hygiene all play a role in the future of dental hygiene education.

The American Dental Hygienists' Association's strategic plan plots the course for the profession's next 100 years.

Expanded function models can ease the access-to-care problems faced throughout the United States.