An Interview with a Dental Hygienist

After more than five years of the completion the economic bachelor degree and uncompleted Master degree, now I am pursuing a totally new career, Dental Hygiene, even though I never thought about before. My life was driven around the social trends without thinking of what I really wanted. Now I have chances to pursue my aspirations; I have idea of doing something that I can help people, devolve my life to society. In my country, the science and technology is not modern enough to provide residents the best knowledge about the importance of oral hygiene. Those students like me can appropriate the most modern technologies to help our people. It is so amazing that Dental Hygienists can provide valuable services whereas building the trustworthy connections with patients. As a result, I chose dental hygiene as the foundation for my health profession since.

For my senior project I have explored the career of a Dental Hygienist, who is a licensed dental professional who is registered with a dental care association within their country of practice. Their duty is to clean teeth, examine patients for signs and symptoms of oral diseases such as gingivitis, and provide other preventive dental care. They also educate patients on ways to improve and maintain good oral cavity health. Dental hygienist occupation has many important aspects to their job, which makes it a very rewarding occupation. According to my research dental hygienists is one of the top career choices in America, being so, over the years the career has evolved into a high demanding occupation.

Being a first year student at the Fortis Institute Dental Hygiene School, I have experienced many wonderful things. I have made new friendships, enhancing my learning experience, furthering my career, and my personal favorite experience, clinic. I have learned many techniques from observing the other students during this time. Also, being in the clinic had shown me that being an RDH is what I want to do. In my essay I will discuss my Fears, experiences, observations, my new found confidences, and finally how my view of Dental Hygiene has changed.

Ever since I was in middle school, I would tell everyone that I was going to become a dentist. That was my career plan until the summer of my junior year. During that summer, I had the opportunity to do an internship and job shadow Dr. Bradshaw at his private dental office. While observing and talking to the doctor, I realized that I would not enjoy working as a dentist. I still wanted to pursue a career in the dental field so I decided to job shadow the dental hygienists. Watching the dental hygienists perform their duties and interact with patients made me want to pursue a career in dental hygiene. I knew very little about dental hygienists besides the fact that they clean teeth. As I spent time with the dental hygienists, I learned more each day. While researching for this paper, I became knowledgeable on even more information. From reading The Occupational Outlook Handbook and A Career as a Dental

As the number of older Americans continue to rise, along with dental practitioners who are entering retirement, it would benefit this under-served population for the dental profession to develop new models of mid- level care. To expand training as well as additional licensing for dental hygienists, along with more training for other health care professionals would be a great beginning towards improved access to care (Overview of oral health,

While most of the patients I interacted with were seeking non-dental care, I met patients who were seeking care to health conditions that stem from their oral health such as oral abscesses, which our team was unable to treat except for prescribing antibiotics or painkillers. I encountered similar situations when I shadowed physicians in the emergency room of hospitals, observing a variety of craniofacial disorders originating from a preventable tooth decay. From these observations, I learned that patients often did not receive treatment that addressed the root of their problems: their oral health. As the result, I learned that many physicians saw the same patient repeatedly for problems that would otherwise be easily prevented through proper preventive dental care. Determining to address the unmet needs for accessible preventive dental care, I decided to pursue a career in dentistry so that I can provide a positive and meaningful impact to the underserved community on their oral health and ultimately their overall

To start, I have always had an interest in the health field and knew it was where I saw my future. I came across dental hygiene and quickly became fascinated. I learned just how important it can be and how many tend to overlook it. Given the opportunity, I would like to make sure my patients understand the importance of dental hygiene and share my knowledge. I feel because I have been given an opportunity that others weren’t so fortunate to receive; it is my responsibility to give back. I come from a small community in Northern New Mexico in which I plan to return and offer my knowledge and skills. I also have plans of doing missionary work for those who are unable to afford dental care. To be accepted into the prestigious Division of Dental

I have chose this career because I enjoy helping people and dental part of the body fascinates me. I expect to learn the process of how to become a dental hygienist and the education plan that I need to have prepared after high school. I am also expecting to learn the typical day and hours a dental hygienist works. The sources of information that I will be using is the internet and background information from previous guest speakers I have had before.

I choose Dental Hygienist as a career for a variety of reasons such as education, interest, salary, schedule, and social interaction. Caring for others and their personals needs is something I am good at. I enjoy interacting with people of different ages and backgrounds, and with this career I am given the opportunity to do this every day. I have always been interested in teeth, and how oral care impacts the overall health, self-esteem, and confidence. A few years ago I got braces on my top and bottom teeth. Throughout the four years I was having my teeth treated I became even more fascinated with teeth. I met Cecile Nguyen who was the Dental Hygienist at the dental office I was going to at the time, she was always so kind, educative and very

The regulations that dictates the scope of practice, the supervision, and the licensure requirement of a dental hygienist, are made by the state dental boards of each state. In most of the states, the dental boards are composed of dentist, one or two dental hygienists, and one or two public members. The fact that dentists are usually the majority of the board members, has prohibited the career of dental hygiene to become more independent, and provide its services to a broader group of people. The state of California, is the only state that has a state board formed by four consumers, one general practice or public health dentist, and four dental hygienists. This allows the dental hygienists to have full authority to make rules and regulations

Surveys indicate that 50% of people say that someone’s smile is the first thing they notice. I personally have always been insecure about my teeth because of the gap in the middle. So, I spent alot of my time worrying what other people thought about me, growing up you realize that you're not the only one who cares so much what others think. A dental hygienist is the person who specializes in scaling and polishing teeth and giving advice on cleaning teeth. Your teeth are a very important part of your body and something you need to keep up on. As kids grow older from being teens to young adults they forget about things like that, going to get your teeth cleaned every 6 months. I want to help people make themselves feel good just like many of

Did you know that a dental hygienist could make a slightly large mistake without asking a simple question? Well they can, the most common question is if their patient would like one or more crown placed in there mouth at a time. In order to succeed as a dental hygienist everyone is required to go to either a two or four year college and major in dental hygiene. Many people believe that it is easy to be a dental hygienist because they think that all that is required to do is clean teeth, but its actually quite difficult. Making sure the patients have excellent oral care is very important

As a dental nurse at the Eastman Dental Hospital I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with dental hygienists in the preventative management of head and neck cancer patients, ensuring long term oral health of the dentition and preventing unwanted effects of tooth loss after radiotherapy. Inspired by this experience and with a strong desire to help others, I decided to pursue a career in dental hygiene and therapy to make a difference in people's lives through oral health care.

You can also get a master's or bachelor’s degree but it’s not very common. Students in high school who plan to become a Dental Hygienist should take biology, chemistry, and mathematics classes. In school Dental Hygienist will study nutrition, anatomy, physiology, and periodontology which mean the study of gum diseases. The median pay for a Dental Hygienist is $70,210 which means they earned about $33.75 an hour. Many employers offer benefits, vacations, sick leave, and a retirement fund to their employees.

Before beginning dental hygiene school, I pictured dental hygienists as people who are just responsible for cleaning teeth, have flexible work hours, and overall dental hygiene being a good family-oriented career. While all of this accurate, I now have a more thorough and greater understanding of dental hygiene after entering this program. In these past two semesters, my view of a dental hygienist has definitely changed in a positive way. The dental hygienists role is not only to clean teeth, but also play an excessive role in educating patients, building relationships, and preventing and treating oral diseases. The mouth is a basic form of the rest of the body’s health, and dental hygienists have a duty to keep that in mind when evaluating