Health Care & Insurance  April 7, 2025

FRCC to launch accredited dental-hygiene degree

Front Range Community College health care careers building in Fort Collins.
Front Range Community College recently constructed a health care careers building at its Larimer Campus in Fort Collins, where the new dental hygiene program will be housed. Courtesy FRCC.
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FORT COLLINS — Front Range Community College has received accreditation approval to open the state’s first and only dental-hygiene program north of the Denver metropolitan area.

The new Associate of Applied Science degree will help students prepare for high-wage careers in a booming field, and will help address an ongoing shortage of registered dental hygienists in the state.

The program, accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, will open this fall with 20 students in the first cohort.

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“Front Range Community College’s new dental-hygiene program will provide our students a fantastic opportunity to bolster their careers through education,” FRCC president Colleen Simpson said in a prepared statement. “In our state-of-the-art facility, our expert faculty will teach these students critical skills and help them earn the credentials they need to excel in this growing field.

“We’re also giving our students access to lucrative jobs,” she said. “The dental-hygiene profession pays a median income of $97,000 a year. FRCC’s new program will offer our students an exceptional return on their educational investment.”

According to the American Dental Association, dentists report that staffing shortages have decreased their practices’ capacity to serve patients by an estimated 11%.

“As a general dentist in family practice, I have experienced firsthand the challenges posed by the shortage of registered dental hygienists in Northern Colorado,” said dentist Shawn Barry, who practices in Windsor. “Despite multiple efforts to recruit qualified professionals through job postings, the response has been minimal.”

This shortage in the workforce compounds issues for Coloradans who already struggle to access dental care. According to FRCC, increasing capacity in this career pathway will help ensure that more Coloradans are able to prioritize their oral health, ultimately lessening overall health inequities that persist for many communities and demographics in rural and urban areas of the state.

Students in the new program will receive high-tech, hands-on training from dental professionals in FRCC’s newly expanded dental clinic, located at the college’s Larimer campus. After completing the program, they’ll be prepared to take national and regional licensing exams to work as a dental hygienist and/or to pursue a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene.

“We’re creating an environment that is focused on hands-on learning — giving students a chance to practice the skills they learn in the classroom,” Angie Peach, dean of health sciences and wellness at FRCC, said in a prepared statement. “With our small classes and real-world experience, this new degree in dental hygiene will equip students with the clinical training and academic foundation they need to start a rewarding career in dental care.”

FRCC recently completed an expansion of its Larimer Campus dental clinic thanks, in part, to a grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. The project added 10 new dental operating units, a sterilization room, dentist’s office and storage bays. The grant funding also allowed for the addition of new handheld dental equipment to ensure students get the real-world training they need to be successful in the dental field.

“This expansion gave us the space to develop a comprehensive dental clinic where dental assisting and dental hygiene students work alongside dentists in a collaborative environment to provide low-cost dental care to the community,” Peach said.

The new program will be co-located with the college’s pre-existing accredited dental assisting program, which is a one-year certificate program. FRCC was able to develop the new two-year associate degree program in dental hygiene thanks to a major grant from Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation.

The college recently constructed a health-care careers building at its Larimer campus, where the new dental hygiene program will be housed. The facility and its high-tech equipment support students’ education in 13 health and wellness fields.

Front Range Community College has received accreditation approval to open the state’s first and only dental-hygiene program north of the Denver metropolitan area.

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