Nutrition in Dental Hygiene connects what patients eat to what we see in their mouths. The course covers the macronutrients and micronutrients that build and maintain oral tissue, how the frequency and form of fermentable carbohydrates drive the caries process, and how deficiencies present clinically — in the gingiva, tongue, and oral mucosa, and in delayed healing after treatment. Just as important are the counseling skills that turn that knowledge into practice: taking a diet history, reading it alongside clinical findings, and helping a patient set changes they can actually keep.