The Importance Of Oral Health Care Providers And Education

Since my interest first peaked, I have continued towards my goal to become a dentist, not only through high academic achievement, but with life experience. I obtained my dental radiography license and worked as a dental assistant during high school and was provided with the opportunity to observe a variety of dental procedures. I also gained exposure to the additional responsibilities of a dental professional ranging from the billing process to dealing with insurance companies. I got a glimpse of the organizational skills necessary to run a small business. I continued gaining experiences upon entering

Being a first generation student requires more will power than I ever thought I owned. In middle school I was denied by my parents the chance to shadow a pharmacist because they saw this as an unattainable dream. It wasn’t until I began working with disabled children and tried to pursue a nursing degree, that I found the courage and determination to pursue all of my dreams in spite of my upbringing.

For many seniors, the days of George Washington and wooden teeth did not seem like such a far-fetched concept. In fact, dentures and old age were virtually synonymous. Over the last few decades, the number of seniors who do not need to go down the path of tooth loss, dentures, and oral health misery has increased.

I was NOT going into dentistry. After high school, I moved to Pittsburgh to study music education. I dreamt of becoming a middle school orchestra teacher, having had a wonderful student-teaching experience during my senior year of high school. While away at school, it became clear to me that a career in music was not for me, and that I would enjoy it much more as a hobby. As I contemplated my next move, my grandfather fell ill, and I came home to help transport him to and from doctor visits, chemotherapy appointments, and the like. While I was glad to be available for my family, leaving school before graduating was difficult for me. I was a self-described nerd/music geek in high school, and not completing my degree was simply not in the plan I had for my life. After dealing with some depression and anxiety following this shift in my circumstances, I began teaching private music lessons while looking for a full-time job. Life is a funny thing. That job I was looking for did come along, and so began my career in dentistry as the Office Coordinator for a small general

When I first began exploring options for a career, my first thought was to look at the things that I enjoyed. I realized that if I could get a job doing something that interested me and I loved doing that I would enjoy going to work. If I could enjoy what I did for a living, I would enjoy more of life. I soon realized that one of my favorite places was the dentist! I have always been told that I was weird for loving the dentist so much, but I didn’t care that people thought that and came to find out that there are many jobs that I could pursue in the dental field. This revelation all came around the time that we were doing career research projects in school. I soon realized that being a dental hygienist was something I would love to do and hopefully be great at. I decided that dental hygiene would be the career I pursued for a few reasons such as my already found interest in dental occupations, the flexibility of the job, and the amount of opportunities that it opened for my future.

From: Oral health and dental care in Australia: key facts and figures 2015 (Chrisopoulos S, Harford JE & Ellershaw A 2016, p. 66)

I have had a passion for teeth for as long as I can remember. Having such a weird passion makes college very difficult. As we get closer to the date of our graduation, I am second guessing my decision even more than I did in the beginning. It may be difficult, but this is how I want to shape my life. This is how I plan to live my college, career, and civic life.

Globally, underprivileged groups in both developed and developing countries have been identified as the most burdened and vulnerable population for oral diseases (Bedos, Levine, & Brodeur, 2009; Petersen et al., 2005). Studies on access to oral health care in the Canadian context have pointed to low-income populations, the unemployed, isolated indigenous populations, and other socio-economically vulnerable groups as people who need oral health services most. These studies have pointed to the poor oral health status of visible minority groups such as immigrants (Calvasina, Muntaner, & Quinonez, 2015; Calvasina, Muntaner, & Quiñonez, 2014, 2015; Lai & Hui, 2007), the elderly (Lai & Hui, 2007; Yao & MacEntee, 2014b), and Aboriginal populations

Oral healthcare is an integral part of the US healthcare system and contributes to the fast growing US healthcare expenditure. Since ages, a pervasive trend of neglected oral health has been observed. Though the long overdue reform act, ACA, has addressed the pitfalls of the healthcare system by improving the access and coverage to oral health, this trend still prevails. Underutilization of oral policy is seen predominantly in the rural residing adults. Almost 20% of US population resides in the rural region, so the practicality in addressing this issue, relies on making pivotal changes in the legislative and dental provider field.

Family dentists everywhere advise patients to floss at least once a day. After all, it’s a crucial step in preventative oral care. At Edward E. Loftspring DDS, based in the heart of Cincinnati, OH, they love helping patients with their daily oral health routine. Here are five reasons to floss daily from Cincinnati’s favorite family dentist:

One core issue at the forefront of adding oral health care to the list of medically necessary services in Canada is financing. Oral diseases are estimated to be the fourth–most expensive diseases to treat in most developed countries (Petersen et al., 2005; Petersen, 2003). The high cost associated with oral health care, coupled with economic challenges has forced many governments around the world to reduce their health care expenditure (Leake & Birch, 2008). In Canada, some provincial governments provide limited but essential levels of oral health care coverage for vulnerable and needy groups such as children and older persons (Quiñonez, 2013). For instance, in the 1950s Newfoundland and Laborador had a province wide dental care program (Leake, 2006). Other provinces such as Manitoba, Bristish Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Alberta and the Norhtwest Territories followed suit with dental health programs for children and seniors during the 1970s and 1980s (Leake, 2006). However, the need to balance public operating budgets and reduce massive public debts led to the restructuring of the health care system, as well as, a financial squeeze in public health funding (David Naylor, 1999). This ultimately led to reduced public funding for oral health services, resulting in cancellation of provincial dental programs for children and seniors (Leake, 2006).

Through the dental hygiene process of care, the clinician’s main purposes are to evaluate the patient, analyze the findings, and determine a treatment that will provide therapeutic care. The clinician must also treat each patient individually based on their oral health needs and conditions. Along with the importance of patient care, are the standard precautions and actions of infection control used to decrease and eliminate the clinician and patient’s susceptibility to infection, diseases, cross-contamination, etc.… according to Wilkins (2017), “The First responsibility of the entire dental team is to organize and maintain a system for the disinfection, sterilization, and care of instruments and equipment” (p. 46).

One day I was at work going over my curriculum with my class. In the curriculum, I was required to talk about health and to teach the children how they ought to be brushing their teeth. I found it startling how several of them did not know how to correctly care for their teeth, even though many of them go to the dentist frequently. It was at this moment I began to want to be a dentist that not only helps people

The World Health Organization (WHO) is an organization that addresses unmet oral health needs of global populations in its pledge to better oral health as an integral part of general health. This organization has recognized profound oral health inequalities that in some cases are relatered to race or ethnicity, status, age, gender, social economic or general health status. In its main goal is to improve the oral health of underserved population for both developed and developing countries; and it works on developing strategies to identify risk groups and individuals, to modify risk behaviors such as poor oral hygiene, sugar intake, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol intake, and provide primary dental care and prevention. To facilitate the

Syndemics, is the critique of the practice of treating disease as isolated and distinct problems. In dental care, the link between illness and oral diseases are not looked at with a syndemic approach. Nolan Kline (2013) mentions in his article: