The Murfreesboro branch of the Daymar Institute, which has additional locations in Clarksville and Nashville, offers a dental assisting program to prospective students. This college is located approximately 50 miles from Columbia. Daymar provides dental assisting students with hands-on training, including chair-side and laboratory experience, during their study at the institute. The pricing bracket, as of January 2011, is about $290 per credit hour for 100-200 level courses and $345 per credit hour for 300-400 level courses.
The Nashville branch of the Anthem Education Group of colleges has programs for both diploma and Associate's degrees in dental assisting. Nashville is approximately 50 miles from Columbia. The school's diploma program emphasizes chair-side techniques, radiography and laboratory procedures and readies students for a chair-side assistant or dental receptionist position. The school's Associate's degree program includes student externships in real dental offices and prepares students for administrative and clinical positions.
National secondary education group Remington College has a location in Nashville. Students at Remington can work toward a diploma in dental assisting or an Associate's degree in dental hygiene. Dental assistant majors will take as few as eight months to complete the program, which readies students for entry-level assisting positions. Dental hygiene majors will take as few as two years to complete the program, which prepares students with classes in oral health, anatomy, radiology, cancer screening and chemistry.
Located in Nashville also, Meharry Medical College houses a school of dentistry, which leads students in a doctoral program in dental surgery as well as two post-doctoral programs in oral and maxillofacial surgery and general practice residency. The dental surgery program is exclusive to the school's approximately 55 acceptances per year. All of Meharry's programs are four-year programs, and students participate in clinic settings, as there is in-patient care on the campus.