Accredited dental hygiene program
Northeast Mississippi Community College
101 Cunningham Boulevard, Booneville, MS 38829
In Booneville, MS, Northeast Mississippi Community College trains dental hygienists in an accredited program. Because the training is hands-on, many programs operate a public clinic where preventive care is priced well below a private dental office.
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.
What a Hygiene Clinic Can and Cannot Do
The work here is preventive: scaling and polishing, scaling and root planing for gum disease, X-rays, gum measurements, fluoride treatment, sealants, and hygiene instruction.
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.
Fees are set by each program and are typically well under private rates, sometimes as one flat charge covering however many visits the treatment takes. Ask whether X-rays are included, because they are often billed separately. 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 patient clinic runs on its own hours and its own line, usually from a different building than the one the college address points at. Worth settling on the phone: whether the clinic is open to the public this term, and taking new patients, which payment methods are accepted, and whether insurance can be billed, how far ahead they are booking, and whether there is a cancellation list, whether children are treated, and from what age, and what to bring — identification, medication list, previous X-rays.
All of it can change with the academic term, so check again close to the day.
Common Questions
Do I need a referral?
Usually not — most programs take patients directly. What they do commonly ask for is a health history and a list of current medications, and a few need clearance from your physician for particular conditions before treatment.
Can they treat gum disease?
Yes, within a hygienist’s scope: scaling and root planing, sometimes called deep cleaning, is core hygiene work and is normally spread over more than one appointment. Advanced gum disease needing surgery is referred to a dentist or periodontist.
What if this clinic cannot see me?
Other low-cost routes exist in Booneville, MS. community health centers in Mississippi discount fees by household income and provide full dental care rather than preventive work alone. For treatment a hygienist cannot do, dental schools in Mississippi are the other reduced-cost option. Both are linked further down this page.
Can I be turned away?
Some programs screen patients first, by phone or at a short visit, to check the case suits the students’ stage of training. Heavy deposits or advanced gum disease may be assigned to a more experienced student or referred out. It is not personal; it is a teaching schedule.
Is a student cleaning as good as a professional one?
The work is slower and it is checked by a licensed instructor before you leave. Many patients find it more thorough than a routine private appointment for exactly that reason. What you give up is time, not care.
Do they take Medicaid?
Sometimes, but college clinics bill insurance less often than health centers do. Adult dental coverage under Mississippi 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.
Accreditation
Status: Approval without Reporting Requirements, next reviewed in 2026. Accreditation covers the teaching — curriculum, facilities and faculty — not whether a public clinic is open, what it charges, or how long the wait is.
Other Accredited Hygiene Programs in Mississippi
Mississippi has 5 accredited dental hygiene programs altogether. If this one is full or the wait is too long, the others are separate institutions with separate lists:
- Pearl River Community College — Hattiesburg
- University of Mississippi School of Dentistry — Jackson
- Meridian Community College — Meridian
- Mississippi Delta Community College — Moorhead
Other Low-Cost Options in Mississippi
- Community health center dental clinics in Mississippi — where to go for anything a hygienist cannot do. Fees follow your income rather than a price list.
- Dental schools in Mississippi — teaching clinics that do handle fillings, root canals, extractions and dentures at reduced cost, usually after a screening visit.
- Free and charitable dental care in Mississippi — volunteer and donated-care programs, with eligibility rules and limited places.
- Mississippi state oral health program — the health department office behind school sealant programs and safety-net dental services in the state.
- How sliding-scale clinics work — who qualifies for an income-based discount and how to apply for one.
Other Dental Hygiene Programs Nearby
- Meridian Community College — Meridian, MS
- Mississippi Delta Community College — Moorhead, MS
- Pearl River Community College — Hattiesburg, MS
- University of Mississippi School of Dentistry — Jackson, MS
- Albany State University — Albany, GA