Accredited dental hygiene program
Carrington College
8909 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95826
Carrington College is a college in Sacramento, CA with an accredited dental hygiene program. Hygiene students qualify by treating patients, so many programs open a teaching clinic to the public where a cleaning costs a fraction of the private price.
What matters most before you make the trip is scope. Dental hygienists are trained in preventive and gum care, so a hygiene clinic can clean your teeth thoroughly and treat gum disease, but it cannot fill a cavity, pull a tooth, or fit a crown. If something hurts, this is not the place to start.
Common Questions
Is the clinic open all year?
Usually not. Teaching clinics follow the academic calendar, so many close over the summer and between terms, and appointments are scarce early in the year while students are still building up their skills. Booking several weeks ahead is normal.
What should I bring?
Photo identification, a list of your current medications, your dentist’s details if you have one, and a means of payment that is not a card unless you have checked they take one. Some college clinics still do not.
How long will the appointment take?
Two to three hours is normal, and some programs split what a private hygienist would finish in one visit across two. The student works carefully and stops for an instructor to check the work, often more than once. Allow the whole morning or afternoon.
Do they take Medicaid?
Sometimes, but college clinics bill insurance less often than health centers do. Adult dental coverage under California Medicaid is set at state level and varies widely; children’s dental coverage is a required benefit everywhere. Our Medicaid dental page covers how to check yours.
What if this clinic cannot see me?
Other low-cost routes exist in Sacramento, CA. community health centers in California discount fees by household income and provide full dental care rather than preventive work alone. For treatment a hygienist cannot do, dental schools in California are the other reduced-cost option. Both are linked further down this page.
Why is it so much cheaper?
Because you are part of the training. Students need patients to qualify, and the clinic exists to give them that experience under supervision. The trade is your time for their practice, which is why the appointment is long and the price is low.
What a Hygiene Clinic Can and Cannot Do
What a supervised hygiene clinic offers is the preventive side of dentistry — cleanings, deep cleaning, X-rays, gum health checks, fluoride, sealants, and coaching on technique.
What it does not offer is anything a dentist must do: fillings, crowns, root canals, extractions, dentures, implants, or emergency treatment. If the examination finds a cavity or a broken tooth, the clinic will tell you and refer you on, but the treatment happens elsewhere. If a tooth hurts now, start somewhere else.
Each program sets its own price, usually well below a private practice, and some charge a single fee for the whole course of treatment. Check whether X-rays are part of it. Appointments run long, two to three hours is normal, and clinics follow the academic year, so many close over the summer and between terms.
Before You Call
The clinic is rarely at the address the college publishes for itself — it is normally in the health sciences building, with a separate line and separate hours. Worth settling on the phone: where the clinic entrance is, and where to park, the total fee, and whether X-rays and follow-up visits are inside it, what to bring — identification, medication list, previous X-rays, whether children are treated, and from what age, and how far ahead they are booking, and whether there is a cancellation list.
Term dates move these details around, which is why a call the week before is worth more than one a month ahead.
Accreditation
Status: Approval without Reporting Requirements, next reviewed in 2028. It reviews the program every few years against a national standard for teaching. Patient access, fees and waiting times are outside what it looks at.
Other Accredited Hygiene Programs in California
California has 26 accredited dental hygiene programs altogether. If this one is full or the wait is too long, the others are separate institutions with separate lists:
- Sacramento City College — Sacramento, the same city
- West Coast University — Anaheim
- Cabrillo College — Aptos
- Southwestern College — Chula Vista
- West Los Angeles College — Culver City
The full California list has the rest.
Other Low-Cost Options in California
- Community health center dental clinics in California — these treat what a hygiene clinic can only diagnose, and they discount by household income.
- Dental schools in California — the reduced-cost route for real treatment. Expect a screening visit first and a course of work measured in months.
- Free and charitable dental care in California — volunteer and donated-care programs, with eligibility rules and limited places.
- How sliding-scale clinics work — who qualifies for an income-based discount and how to apply for one.
Other Dental Hygiene Programs Nearby
- Cabrillo College — Aptos, CA
- Carrington College San Jose — San Jose, CA
- Carrington College - Ontario — Ontario, CA
- Carrington College - Visalia — Visalia, CA
- Cerritos College — Norwalk, CA