Diploma in Dental Hygiene is a diploma in Dentistry programme taught at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. The programme runs for 3 years, delivered on campus. Teaching is in English. Tuition for international students is CAD 9,653 per semester (CAD 2,959 per semester for local students).
At a glance
Degree:Diploma
Field:Dentistry
Duration: 3 years
Delivery: On Campus
Language: English
Local tuition: CAD 2,959 / semester
International tuition: CAD 9,653 / semester
Information for the 2027/28 academic year · Last reviewed September 2026 ·
Program details
Overview
Overview Give people a reason to smile. The three-year Dental Hygiene Ontario College Advanced Diploma program, delivered over two and half years, combines theory and hands-on skills to prepare you for a challenging and rewarding career in preventive dental health care. It allows you to fulfil the role of the dental hygienist as researcher, advocate, educator, administrator, clinician and health promoter. This program teaches you how to provide safe and effective dental hygiene care in collaboration with the client, community, and other healthcare providers. This happens through a variety of learning experiences including seminars, case presentations and on-site and off-site practicums. You provide preventive services in our on-site dental clinic under the supervision of Registered Dental Hygienists and Dentists. These experiences increase your employability upon graduation and help prepare you for the workforce. This program is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of Canada. Graduates are eligible to write the National Dental Hygiene Certification Exam, which, once passed, allows you to register with the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario. Once registered as a Dental Hygienist, you may find employment working in: general and specialty practices healthcare facilities community health settings research and education dental sales dental supply companies independent dental hygiene practices
Requirements
Admission Requirements: Algonquin publishes these requirements for the Sept 2027 - Aug 2028 admissions year on this program's own page; the requirements for Sept 2026 - Aug 2027 are shown separately there and can differ. Program code 1927X01FWO. All applicants must satisfy both College Eligibility and Program Eligibility.
COLLEGE ELIGIBILITY: an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or its equivalent, or mature-student standing - 19 or older, and without a high-school diploma, by the time the program begins. Mature entry may be settled by academic achievement testing, for which a fee is charged.
PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY: Grade 12 English (ENG4C or equivalent) at 65% or better; Mathematics at Grade 11 or 12 (MBF3C or MAP4C or equivalent) at 65% or better; Biology at Grade 11 or 12 at 65% or better; Chemistry at Grade 11 or 12 at 65% or better.
Every applicant must also sit the Algonquin College Health Program Admissions Test (AC-HPAT) at the Test Centre and pay an exam fee. The result is used both to set minimum eligibility and to rank applicants, and it may be written only once per academic cycle.
Applicants presenting transcripts from outside Canada must document the subjects above and may be asked for evidence of language proficiency; a domestic applicant holding international transcripts must have them assessed by the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS) or World Education Services (WES).
ENGLISH: Academic IELTS 6.5 overall with nothing under 6.0 in any band; or TOEFL iBT 88 overall with 22 in each of reading, listening, speaking and writing where the test was sat before 21 January 2026, or 4.5 overall with 4.5 in each section where it was sat after that date; or a Duolingo English Test score of 120 overall with 120 in Literacy and nothing under 105.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS: those who meet the program eligibility are additionally required to complete a four-month preparatory course, Introduction to Canadian Health Studies (ICHS), and move into this program afterwards; entry to ICHS requires an academic IELTS score.
AFTER ACCEPTANCE: ParaMed requirements must be completed - an annual vulnerable-sector police check; the clinical/field pre-placement health form by week 8 of the program; hepatitis B immunisation; a returning student's immunisation form before level 04; current CPR at Basic Life Support level, from a course with a hands-on component (online-only CPR is not accepted) and kept current until the program is finished; N95 mask fit testing; a current Standard First Aid certificate from a 13-hour course, kept current to graduation; and WHMIS plus Ontario health and safety awareness training, which the College provides free to registered students. Clinical placement is required to graduate and host agencies require a clear Police Records Check for Service with the Vulnerable Sector; a student who cannot be placed cannot graduate. Obtaining that check is the applicant's responsibility and cost and can take 8-10 weeks, so apply early.
Application Details
Start Date:Intake terms Algonquin lists for this program, read from its own availability table on 6 September 2026: Fall 2026 (AC Day 1 orientation 8 September 2026; Fall term classes start 9 September 2026); Winter 2027 (most classes start 11 January 2027). Term start dates come from the Registrar's Important Dates page, which also gives 11 January 2027 for the Winter 2027 term and 10 May 2027 for the Spring 2027 term. Availability changes as seats fill and an intake already under way may be closed, so check the program page before applying. Algonquin's academic year runs September to August.
Application Deadline:DOMESTIC APPLICANTS (Canadian citizens and permanent residents). Algonquin publishes no deadline unique to this program; the dates below are the college-wide Ontario colleges cycle and apply to every full-time day program. Applications go through ontariocolleges.ca, where 1 February is the equal consideration date each cycle: apply by then and your application is assessed alongside every other one received by that date, while applications arriving later are handled first-come, first-served for as long as places remain. For entry in Fall 2027 the ontariocolleges.ca application opened on 26 September 2026, colleges may begin issuing offers on 1 November 2026, the equal consideration date is 1 February 2027 and an offer must be accepted by 1 May 2027. The equal consideration date that governed the Fall 2026, Winter 2027 and Spring 2027 intakes was 1 February 2026 and has already passed, so those three starts are now first-come, first-served while seats last. Algonquin flags this program as competitive, which makes the 1 February date matter: qualified applicants who applied by then are rank-ordered on their screening results and offers go down that list, and everyone after it is admitted only while space remains or is waitlisted by date of application. This program also requires the Algonquin College Health Program Admissions Test (AC-HPAT); Algonquin asks for the assessment to be completed by 12 February to be included in the ranking.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS. Apply directly to Algonquin on the International Application Form in its International Application Portal (AC360) rather than through ontariocolleges.ca, with a CAD 135 application fee. There is no single fixed international deadline: Algonquin asks you to confirm the program is open before applying, warns that a program's status can change to waitlisted or closed before an admissions officer reviews the file, and publishes a closing-date sheet for each intake. For the Fall 2026 intake that sheet gives this program's own dates: 16 September 2026 is the last day to apply on the International Application Portal and receive an acceptance, and 21 September 2026 is the last day to register.
