#14 Who's Who in the Dental Office - Dental Hygienist Edition

10/02/24 • 18 min

Dental offices are made up of a lot of different team members. We dove into some of the roles in a couple previous episodes, but today we are talking all things dental hygienist. What do dental hygienists do and how do they operate within a dental practice? Let’s dive in.

SIDE NOTED: We are not only rounding off this segment of “who’s who in the dental office”, but we are also rounding off season 1! We have enjoyed having you all on this journey and can’t wait to see you in season 2! We will still be active on all our socials so drop us a line. Don’t be a stranger!

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As always, feel free to reach out through our instagram @YourDailyDoseOfDental or through our website http://www.DoseOfDental.com. We would love to hear from you and hope your questions can be featured on our show!

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Website: https://doseofdental.com/

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Transcript:

Well, well, welcome back to another episode. I’m Dr. Mike. – And I’m Dr. Rusty. – And we’re two general dentists practicing in Portland, Oregon. – Welcome back to our podcast, DM a dentist. – In today’s episode, we’re talking about our final team member in the who’s who in the dental office. This is part three, and we’re talking about the dental hygienist. – The hygienist? You mean the cornerstone of the dental office? – You mean the boss? – Yeah, basically the boss. – They’re kind of in charge, it seems like. – The boss, sometimes, you know. – My boss, day to day. – We love our hygienists, but you know. – Yeah, but they run the place. – They do. – Yeah, in a lot of ways, they do keep the office running. And keep a lot of things. – Absolutely. – Systems running, recall patients coming through. I mean, hygienist is important. – I mean, does your hygienist or does your hygienist? Does your patients say, “Hey, I wanna see you” or they wanna see the hygienist? – Oh, for sure. They request a hygienist. They build a relationship with them. You know, the hygienist is like the bread and butter of the practice. It’s bringing people through to get exams. And I mean, they’re coming back to see the hygienist though. They build a relationship with them. They’re not coming to see me. – No, they wanna see Vonda, or Sam, or Angela. Any of you all that are amazing. – Yeah. – But when they’re in their chair, they’re happy. They’re getting their teeth clean, things are good. When they’re in my chair, it’s ’cause they need something more. So typically, patients are just happier, I think, when they’re coming for a hygiene visit. ‘Cause they’re– – Yeah, it’s like a real spa day. – Yeah, it’s basically– – Yeah, it’s a treatment. Yeah. – Something crazy. – But what is a role of a hygienist? I mean, you know, we talked a little bit about some of the roles. What are they called? – Dental nurses. – Dental nurse. – Yeah, so are dental nurses? – As you all know, they’re not dental nurses. – Yeah, if you listened to our early episodes, no one in the dental office is called a nurse. So y’all better know that if not go back in with then I think it was the assistant– – Listen to a different one. – Yeah. – These are what we’re talking today about dental hygienist, not dental nurses. So yeah, what are they? – The hygienists, they’re really involved. So they’re providers of the office too, right? They’re licensed in a similar way to the dentist or license. By the state, they have to go to a lot of school, a lot of training. So they’re super involved in oral health, in treating oral disease, and a lot more ways than just cleaning your mouth. They have a few kind of main functions I would say. As a dental hygienist, your number one is they’re gonna be providing hygiene, aka cleaning your teeth. The other thing they’re gonna be doing a big part is education, you know, oral hygiene instructions, education, types of toothbrush, water picks, different, you know, maltherinces and things that are gonna be really helpful. So aka teaching you how to clean your teeth. And then the other thing they’re gonna do, we kind of lump this one together is providing, you know, more information or applying medications, you know, things like different toothpaste, maltherinces, you know, they’re seeing, you know, maybe fungal or viral infections that they can spot and have us, have us, you know, prescribed medication for. So that’s another kind of big role for them. – Yeah, no, I love that you described it that w...

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Website: https://doseofdental.com/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dmadentist

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Transcript:

Previous Episode

#13 Who's Who in the Dental Office - Dental Assistant Edition

There are many team members that make up a dental office. This is Part 2 of our three part series on “Who’s Who in the Dental Office”. This week we talk to two dental assistants as they share what its like being a dental assistant. They answer some of your most pressing questions and share some fun stories. Tune in as Roxy and Diego join us on the show and share some insight into the world of dental assisting.

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Website: https://doseofdental.com/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dmadentist

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Audio Transcript:

Welcome to DM Adentist, your friendly neighborhood podcast where Dr. Rusty and Dr. Mike are here to make dental care approachable for everyone because everyone deserves a healthy smile without the fear. Well, welcome back! Today we have two special guests for our next interview series, Who’s Who in the Dental Office Part 2. Today we have two of our dental assistants. We have Roxy and Diego, two of my favorites. Roxy, how long have you been a dental assistant? I’ve been a dental assistant for about 10 years now. Okay, awesome. And Diego, what about you? Been a dental assistant for about 7 years now. Okay, nice, love it, love it, okay. And you know, I know a lot of people, you know, we talked about it previously in our basic introduction to The Who’s Who about like the dental assistant roles and things, but a lot of people aren’t familiar with what a dental assistant, some people haven’t called a dental nurse to do, right? How would you describe what you all do on a day to day? You know, I feel like we’re honestly the doctors right hand. We do a lot that I feel like the patients don’t necessarily see. We welcome the patients, we triage the patients. We do a little bit of everything, honestly. So triage, what is that like if a new patient is coming in or like they have a problem, like what do you mean by triage? So we will sit the patient down and kind of figure out what’s going on with the patient and let the doctor know we, there’s a lot of communication with what we do. So just kind of communicating with what the patient tells us and then letting the doctor know what is going on. So the patient doesn’t feel like they are repeating themselves. True. Yeah, that’s important because a lot of times I feel like that’ll happen where you know, they come in and they’re like, hey, this tooth is hurting me. It happened X amount of days ago. And then I come in and I’m like, hey, what’s going on? And then like this tooth broke. It happened X amount of days ago. I just told them that I feel like patients really are eyes along when they have to repeat themselves. So if I can limit that, that’s great. But yeah, we do, we do a lot that people don’t necessarily see. For sure, a lot of behind the scene stuff too, right? Like all the like sterilization, like slipping room, setting up rooms, helping chair side, like tons of rolls that you all have in the office for sure. So, and another big role I think that the dental assistant has is to like help chair side with patients, right? A lot of patients that are coming are really anxious or nervous to be there, right? Like being in the dental chair isn’t the most fun experience. We get it. So like what are some things that you can do to help keep patients more calm and more relaxed and just kind of help them have like an overall better experience, especially for someone who may be like kind of nervous or scared. Exactly. But Diego and myself, we both have a calming demeanor about us. Right. So, I mean, he’s so soft spoken. I’m so soft spoken. So I feel like that’s a big thing. Right. We’re not really rushing the procedure or whatever it is that we’re getting done. We, I mean, just making sure patients feel comfortable and letting them know we have the time for them today and letting, asking them what maybe their fear might be of the dentist. Right. So we can reassure them that. I mean, we’re here for you. Right. So I feel like you’re pretty soft spoken. So like, Diego, what are like some common fears that people will have in the dental office? Like, what are some things that people will be afraid of and what are some ways we can kind of make that better for them? Yeah, like usually like shots, noises that are coming out of the instruments. Yeah. I f...