There are many things that make me love dental hygiene: educating patients, improving oral and systemic health, knowing I have the ability to change and save lives.
Francis Bacon stated, “knowledge is power” and that inspires me daily while educating my patients. I often tell them, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” During oral hygiene instruction, I love when my patients ask questions about the sequence of their oral care routine and products. I even love when they ask “why should I even bother brushing or flossing my teeth?” After all, we are highly educated professionals with a foundation built upon years of scientific research - we should be eager to share our wealth of knowledge and research.
When a patient shares that they love a new brand of floss that I recommended, a new rinse, waterpik, electric toothbrush, or that their gums feel so much more comfortable and no longer bleed it makes my hygiene heart absolutely sing! Working in periodontics, I try to incorporate several different brands, tools, and methods to motivate and get my patients excited about their home care routine. Don’t like Glide? Try Cocofloss! You never floss in the morning because you’re running late to work? Try flossing every day after lunch. Or, set a recurring alarm on your phone to remind you daily that it’s time to floss again. Each patient is different and deserving of a individualistic approach to oral hygiene instruction and personalized product recommendations tailored directly to their needs. While these moments are filled with joy the moments that I find most impactful are the moments that I know have a positive ripple effect on my patient’s overall well-being.
When asking a patient about medical history updates, I heard, “Yeah, I’m now on Lisinopril, I found out I have high blood pressure because every time I came here you guys were asking me about it and if I’d seen my primary care doctor. It had been a few years, so I went in, found out that I need medication, and I updated all my blood work.” This patient had previously been seen in the practice on multiple occasions with stage II hypertension readings. This time, they had a normal blood pressure reading. I felt elated that I was able to educate my patient on the dangers associated with unmanaged hypertension: heart attack, stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, and vision issues. Hypertension is known as the “silent killer” because it is often asymptomatic.
It is truly the moments like these that motivate me to continue to further my education, when I succeed in motivating and changing not only my patient’s oral health but systemic health my patients in turn motivate me to keep pushing forward to elevate the standard of care within the dental hygiene profession. My patients continue to teach me that the work we do, both in and outside of the clinic, is profoundly important. Dental conventions and conferences ignite the same passion in me; there is something magical about getting together with other highly educated, motivated health care professionals to further our knowledge on the latest research, products, and methods to further benefit our patients.
For me, this is the life-changing, interdisciplinary care, medicine, that IS dental hygiene.