Work

Well I have been practicing dental hygiene for about a year now and a lot of people have been asking me lately if I like being a dental hygienist so I have been thinking a lot..."Do I like being a dental hygienist?"

And the answer is...YES, I do!

I have to admit I am not as motivated as I was in school and don't feel like I learn and grow as much at work as I would like to but right now I am okay with that. I have learned that there really is a lot more to life than school or work and it's nice to have a good job with good pay and decent hours that lets me work hard and go home and play at the end of the day. 

I love the office I work in. It has its drama just like any office but all in all I like waking up and going to work every day. I work with another hygienist which I am so grateful for, I learn so much from her and appreciate her sharing her knowledge with me. The assistants and everyone else are just really good people and wonderful co-workers, I feel so lucky to be able to work with them every day. I absolutely LOVE our perio protocol. We are aggressive in diagnosing and treating perio and I really feel like we offer the best standard of care to our patients. 

I really enjoy my patients. Of course there are always crazy ones but for the most part we have some really great patients. It is so fun to get to know them and become their friends. Today I had a patient that when she first came in hadn't been to the dentist in years, was a recovering meth addict, had a lot of perio and dental problems, and was terrified of being in my chair. I could tell she was struggling with a lot of different issues in her life at the time. I built a relationship with her and assured her that even though she had a lot of work that needed to be done we would take everything one step at a time and that she would have a good experience. I pointed out that she had overcome her drug addiction which was such a big feat and that soon enough she would overcome her fear of dentists too.  She must have cancelled her appointments at least ten times but finally she came in and got her work done with me and the doctor. Everything went well and she did really good. So today when she came in for her perio maintenance appointment I was shocked at how great her gingiva looked. She has been brushing and flossing religiously (wow, someone does listen to me) and her hard work had definitely paid off. Her gums were nice and pick and knife-edged and stippled and there was no BOP and her probe depths had improved a lot. I was just so happy for her! Not just that she listened to me and her oral health was amazing but I could tell that she was really making a lot of good changes in her life and progressing a lot. It was so good to see her so happy!

So all in all, I really do like being a dental hygienist!