Public Health Initiatives to Encourage Oral and Dental Health Education

It is evident that it is truly where my head, heart and hands, become one. Being a dental hygienist and working in close proximity with the dentist has served to strengthen my desire to take my education and service to the next level. I want to increase my knowledge about the science behind dentistry and learn everything I need to know to be a great dentist and apply it into practice. Improve constantly and strive to provide the highest quality of oral health care available to patients by delivering meticulous, gentle, thorough, reassuring dentistry and exceeding patient satisfaction. Dentistry without a doubt, is the profession for me. I believe I have the qualities that are essential to making a great dentist along with the academic motivation in order to replace my interest for dentistry with the expertise that will help me provide quality oral care. If my greatest aspirations are to provide pain relief, to develop patient rapport, and utilize creativity in working with my hands, then dentistry is, indeed, my

Before this school year started, me and my group members had little knowledge on dental specialties, but now we’ve become experts on the topic. This project has helped us become acquainted with the structure and appearance of dental offices, and it will help us educate the community through our models and presentation. Not only did this experience inform us, it opened our eyes as to what we want to pursue. I’ve become more interested in the orthodontic field and I know my group mate is thinking about going into pedodontics. Our project took a lot of time and effort and we hope it will expand the way the public sees the dental

My life has truly been transformed by Dentistry; it has boosted my confidence and aligned me with the career path of my dreams. Early on in life, every aspect of Dentistry captured my heart. Learning to cope with my embarrassing smile inspired me to want to help others by giving them what they always dreamed of. Knowing I have the power to make someone's dreams come to life is the reason I wake up each morning with a drive and desire to achieve my goals. While striving with a strong focus, packaged with confidence and sincerity, I will pursue my passion through demanding training. I not only plan to be a hardworking, determined and ambitious student, but with my skills as an orthodontist, it will further my ability to be an active member in

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,

Idelina Almanzar graduated with honors with an Associate of Applied Science in Dental Hygiene from New York City College of Technology. She is currently working as a full time Registered Dental Hygienist in a family Dental Practice in New York City. As a compassionate, yet focused, Dental Hygienist, she loves using her professional expertise to help patients keep or find their beautiful smiles. She also enjoys sharing this vision with individuals who work efficiently and accurately as a dynamic team of dental professionals. Her love and passion for Dentistry has inspired her in continuing her education to become a Doctor in Dental Medicine. Currently, Idelina is pursuing a Bachelors degree in Health Service Administration with the purpose of

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.

As all Americans’ know, job stability is close to a foreign language. Not many people choose the job of a dental hygienist, though it is perfect due to the population increases and high demand. At the beginning at 2016, it was looked upon as one of the fastest growing occupations, dental wise. If one was to be occupied by this jobs, their services would be demanded frequently, whether you are finishing your certification program or in your career already.

Hundreds of years ago, the dental profession and the medical profession was perceived as two separate entities, however, this bifurcated health system has created an epidemic in oral disease with our aging population (Nagro, 2016). Dentistry should be more closely integrated with medicine and the health care system, however, organized dentistry has fought to stay a monopoly. They have protested regarding dental personnel being independent, even in the advancement of serving more rural areas, just as they repelled being part of Medicare. Finally, there are a few states that have alternative choices for a dental hygienist to travel to people who can’t get to a traditional dental office. Some of these states include Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon,

The patient has a four unit bridge on her upper anteriors, she has ten missing teeth

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Molly Koopman, Expanded Function Dental Assisting Program, Miami Jacobs Career College, Springboro, OH 45066

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected, from 2014 to 2024, an incredible 18% growth in the general dentist job market4. How many unemployed general dentists do you personally know? While they are out there, it’s difficult to find an unemployed dentist since oral care is such an important thing that affects all people. An interesting job trend is occurring that can be witnessed here in Utah Country. Googling “Stonehaven Dental” shows that there are three practices in Utah County. My father, who is a dentist, says that large dental chains like these are becoming more normal and making it more difficult for independent dentists to start individual practices.

As a primary strategy for reducing oral health disparities, the current Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, restated the commitment to incorporation of oral health into medicine. The responsibility included the implementation of an agency-wide Oral Health Strategic Framework, which will seek to integrate oral health across federal agencies in the form of funding priorities and workforce development (Murthy, 2016). The framework aims to reduce oral health disparities by integrating oral health into primary care, improving distribution of oral health awareness and increasing oral health care services research (Murthy, 2016). Already, the framework has led to increased funding for oral health care delivery in community health centers and grants to support the integration of oral health into primary care training at the medical school, advanced graduate education, and practitioner levels (Adesanya et al.,

Most recent graduates are millennials, born between 1982 and 2001. Millennials are the group that are currently entering, attending or completing dental school. Millennials are more ethnically and racially diverse with a confident and optimistic worldview. They prize lifestyle and friendships above work. Unlike their predecessors, millennials do not view their chosen profession as a life passion, a defining mark of self-worth or a source of income and security. Instead, they see their jobs as a means to maintain their personal lives. They do not want to be the boss. They prefer a work environment that emphasizes teamwork, values structure over authority, utilizes the latest technology and provides time for personal interests outside the workplace. These traits make millennials a perfect fit for corporate dentistry. During their dental school training, millennials have had the “new math” approach to dental education. Traditional dental education prior to the 1990s focused on mastering various skills in different disciplines like prosthodontics, restorative dentistry and periodontics, and applying the knowledge gained in managing patients. Students were exposed to various specialty areas and they learned to assess their strengths and weaknesses. Previous generations of dentists sought out continuing education opportunities and learned to work with dental specialists to provide multidisciplinary

Education is an important factor to succeed at my goal of becoming a dentist. The goal of going to dental school along with four years of undergraduate school at Northern Arizona University is a very ambitious goal. The reason why I have set such a drastic goal of becoming