Reflection On A Hygienist

Today was quite a nice experience. There were a lot of volunteers in the office so it's kind of hard to have a lot of one-on-one time with patient. I ended up working closely with the hygienist for most of my time there. She showed me her day to day experiences and some techniques she uses to calm patients. It’s important to experience working with every dental professional. As a future dentist I'll be interacting with the entire dental team including the hygienist, so today I decided to stick with the hygienist.

The hygienist was a very nice woman. She did express her concerns about the amount of student volunteers that make their rounds through the office day in and day out. She mentioned that having a well versed staff in essential to an

efficiently run office. Having so many untrained students tended to slow her down a bit. I understand where she was coming from, even though many volunteer run offices tend to utilize untrained people. I made note of her stance and made sure to work as efficiently as I could. I admired the way she worked with the patients. She was very patient with them and talked with a calm voice. Although she kept conversation short, she did make an effort to ask them about their day. I could tell that she even remembered some of the patient’s names. I learned that by addressing the patient throughout the appointment by their name, it helps remember the patient later.
I was responsible for seating patients and clearing hygiene rooms. It was important to make sure everything was sterilized, disinfected, and sanitized and to know the difference between the three. Cross contamination should be avoided at all cost, especially when handling human body fluids. I also took radiographs and locating patient charts. I was relatively surprised at how well my radiographs turned out, as I haven’t taken them in a few years.
I was able to speak to a family member today. She was the daughter of one of our patients. I could see the concern in her faced and asked her what was wrong. She was worried about her mother and her well-being. I assured her that her mother was fine and she was happy and even conversing with the dentist. The daughter insisted on seeing her mom. I think the daughter was more afraid that of what was going on than her mom was. When she saw her mom they rejoice and everything was all fine. She explained to me how her mother was the most important person to her in the entire world. Then I realized just how big of a responsibility I will have. I will be responsible for the safety of mother, daughters, sons, etc. That’s a huge deal!
Later on in the day I was able to go help out in the operatory.

I interacted with a man who explained to me that he had never had a good experience at the dental office. He told me that he always had pain when dealing with the dentist and that they never stopped the procedure when he was in pain. He explained how they never gave enough anesthetic, so he felt everything. Immediately he went into comforting himself by putting some earphones on and just talking to me. We held a good conversation. When the dentist came in to see him she immediately noted that the patient had very thick skin. He was a deeper toned person with dense bone. She knew that she was going to have to use a special technique to anesthetize the patient enough to where he wouldn't feel it. She was nice enough to have explained to me the procedure she was going to use and that it was better for patients like him. I was a little confused as to what she meant and some of the terms she used were little tricky to understand but as the procedure went on it became very evident of what she was trying to say. The patient was in tears, not out of pain, but out of sheer joy because he had never experienced a procedure that was as painless as he experienced today. I've never seen a grown man cry like a baby so hard, it was just the most rewarding experience. This experience solidified even more that I am definitely going into the right field. I've never felt so sure of anything before. His tears almost brought me to

tears.