Hi guys! I wanted to share and link some of my favorite gift ideas for the teeth lovers in your life or . Price ranges from $10-$50. I hope this guide is helpful for your shopping. Massage Gun -because self care is much needed after work. Dental Hygiene Nation Sweatshirts - so comfy and I've been wearing them to work everyday. Scrub Caps - this is my favorite brand and I love the modern pony style. Scrunches- these silk ones are the best and save my hair!Clogs- these have been my favorite for work. So supportive! Rose Gold Burst- plus there is a really great sale now! I have never seen the rose gold one this price. Embroidered Scrub Jacket- I wear mine all the time. You can add your name and title to this one, Hand Massager- I use this every single work day! My husband got me it for Christmas last year and it was the best gift ever. Tooth Keychain- this would make a great small gift for co-workers. Ornament- another great small gift for coworkers, teachers, or classmates. Happy shopping!!!
-Callie
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Q: Do you take x-rays a lot? How long do you get for SRP’s?
A: YES! Especially because I am seeing so many new patients, I take a ton of FMX. If we are running behind the assistants can help. I get one hour per quad and we only do two a day. Q: Biggest thing that has helped your time management? A: Constantly watching the clock. Knowing how the timing on when I need to call the doctor for an exam in order to stay on time. You will develop a system and know okay 30 minutes in, I should be polishing and calling the Doctor! Try to do notes as soon as your patient leaves the room. It gets rough to do multiple at the end of the day. Q: What kind of office are you working at? A: A general and cosmetic practice. We do a lot of implants also because one of the doctors is a prosthodontist. After working in pediatrics for so much, I am really enjoying this side of dentistry. Q: Did you shadow another hygienist in the office before actually starting? A: I only did for one day. That was the hardest part about my transition is that I would have loved a couple more days, although that was just not offered in this position. It resulted in me still asking tons and tons of questions to the other hygienist’s in my first couple weeks. I feel like three days of shadowing would have been more helpful. Q: How is the pay out of school? Were you content? Did you expect more? A: I did my research in my city, you can do this by just googling “average dental hygiene salary in city, state.” Many job sites will tell you this info. I asked for the average pay rate and that’s what I got. I had multiple jobs offers that offered me $3-4 less than what I make right now. I’m glad I didn’t settle for that! Q: Did you have trouble finding a job at a good practice? A: YES! Interviewing was kind of discouraging. I would be so excited for an interview but then leave it with multiple things I didn’t like about the office. I also shadowing several places. For me, shadowing helped me determine so much. If I didn’t like the vibe of the team and doctor, it was a quick no for me. I went into the interviews knowing what I wanted in an office (same values, times per apt, hours). Be PICKY! Q: Tips for time management (this question was asked so many times!!!!) A:
Q: Tips for the first day? A: Fake confidence as much as you can! Never tell a patient that you are new or that it is your first day. If they ask you can say, “I’ve been practicing hygiene for a couple years, but I have only been in this office a short while so I am still learning how they do things here.” Bring a mini notebook to take notes so you don’t have to ask the same questions multiple times. Give yourself some grace because it will be extremely overwhelming for a while. You will have those moments when you’re like WOW I can’t believe I’m an actual HYGIENIST, and it will feel AMAZING. Q: How to learn about insurances? Just experience or any tips? A: This has been difficult because my school did not prepare me enough for the insurance frustration. I learned the most by asking the insurance coordinator as well as the other hygienists in my office a ton of questions like “what would you recommend in this scenario”. Multiple times I have consulted with my co-workers while my patient is in the chair about what would be the best route to take for them. We have a form in every patient’s chart with a breakdown, so we know exactly what their coverage is but other than that, I leave insurance to the front desk. You are treating the patient, not their insurance! Q: I’m a second-year hygiene student. What can I be doing to better prepare myself? A: I would say ask your instructors towards the end if you can have a mock real-world day. Ask to cut out the extra apt school fluff one day and let you treat the patient from start to finish and only have them check at the end. Work on your speed this day! Ask them to tell you in the real world what codes would be used for each patient so you can be familiar with them. Q: Is it harder than hygiene school? A: In different ways, yes. The speed is hard to get down and it is weird not having an instructor to make sure everything you do is right. But it also feels so amazing to be doing what you love finally and making money while doing it! Q: Do you get a lunch break? Do you get paid if patients don’t show? A: Yes, I get one hour. Yes, we do not have to clock out! Q: How quick did you notice you got your system down and felt more comfortable? A: I am still working on this, but after week two, things started to get much better! Q: How are you learning to adapt to the office? I’m worried about being slow. A: They will EXPECT you to be slow! Find an office that will be understanding and supportive of you being a new grad. As far as adapting, it takes time but every day you learn something new. Adjusting to working with a new Dr. takes time, but you slowly learn their quirks and what they like. Ask them for feedback! Q: What is something that you stressed about in school that wasn’t so bad at work? A: 1. Polishing- I spend way less time on polishing now. In school we had to use disclosing solution and the instructor’s would ALWAYS find something. Q: Is it exhausting? I am so dead tired after clinic. A: YES. My friends and I have said that we are all feeling pretty beat still. Covid stress does not make things easier. Q: How much are time do you get per quad? Full mouth in one apt? A: one hour per quad and we only do half a mouth in one apt. Q: How much time do you get for each patient? Do you have an assistant? A: one hour for recares, perio maintence. Two-hour new patients. We can have an assistant occasionally help. I decided not to go the assisted hygiene route because I did not want to see double the patients. Q: Are you ever afraid of hurting someone? A: Yes, as a new grad, I always worry that they will compare me to their last hygienist. Q: How does it feel anesthetizing for the first time? I’m so nervous! A: Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous. I reviewed my books and YouTube videos before my first day because it had been so long. Injections are my favorite! Q: Do you recommend working 4 or 5 days? If you work 5, is one day a half day? A: I work 36 hours right now and it is more than enough to start! My schedule is Monday thru Thurs 8-5 and Friday 8-12. I have one or two Friday’s off a month. It is the perfect schedule for me. Q: Does your body hurt? I feel like my body aches even with good ergonomics. A: My back seems to hurt the most. I have made it a daily routine to use my lacrosse ball for knots and foam roll. It is very taxing on your body so definitely step up your self care. Q: What questions did they ask in interviews? A: My proudest accomplishment, favorite part of being a hygienist, why I chose dentistry, what qualities I would bring to the team. Mostly you will be chatting about the office and how they do things. Q: Do you still recommend the profession? A: Only if you have a passion for it and a love for helping people. If you are choosing this career for money and hours you will burn out. Patients can be really difficult and demanding. SO far, I am liking it but hygiene definitely has plenty of cons. The main one being the stress on your body. Q: Were you an assistant before? Did it help in any way? A: I started assisting in 2011. It helped me in school and some with speed in the real world. It is definitely not necessary to become a hygienist. It was nice understanding another roll in the office and the things they do daily. Q: Best Stress management tips for unwinding! A: Keep a good workout routine! This really helps my muscles and overall body feel so much better. I work out as soon as I get home before I get unmotivated. Q: How to overcome any social anxiety? A: For building patient rapport, my go to questions are to ask about their plans for the day, their job, or their families. This really helps open up the conversation. Some patients simply don’t want to talk and that is okay too! It’s nothing to do with you. Q: Are your doctor’s strict about bitewings as mine? Getting distal of canine, etc.. A: No, my doctors are very laid back about that. I do the best I can and they have been really understanding. They are pickier with intraoral photos. Q: How was learning to deal with insurance and how to bill people? A: I sat down with the insurance coordinator and asked a ton of questions. In my office we do not have to deal with insurance too often except knowing the frequency for things like x-rays and hygiene visits. You will learn a lot as you go and I wish school focused more on this. Q: Was it hard transitioning from clinic time to actual patient time? We have four-hour blocks! A: Yes! But also, once you cut out the extra things school makes you do and all the time it takes for instructors to check you, you will be surprised with your timing. You will learn everyday what does not need as much time- for me that is polishing. Try to mirror the speed the other hygienists go (I paid attention to how long it typically takes them to do things such as FMX, probing). Thanks for reading and I hope you found it helpful! -Callie Hi guys!
First off, thank you so much for all the well wishes on my exam this week. The texts and DM’s made me feel very loved and supported. I had a lot of requests to share about my experience with the ADEX mannequin exam since it is a new format thanks to COVID. I was supposed to take the live patient exam back in April but since Florida has had such high cases, I’m glad they found this solution for us. My exam was about an hour and a half away at University of Florida at 10:30 am. I was able to drive down that morning but most of my friends stayed in a hotel nearby. The check in process was super easy and everyone was so helpful. We had to wear a mask in the building of course and they took our temperatures a few times. The CDCA posted did a preview video as well as a live Q and A video. Watching both made me feel confident and ready for this exam to get comfortable with the paperwork (it is different than the live patient) and the grading (also different). Please review the new manual multiple times before you go. I got to my site about 15 minutes early. Once we were checked in on the IPAD’s they allowed us an hour to set up which was way more than enough time. They even gave us time to gather and ask more questions beforehand and to once more explain the process. I took the set-up time to make sure my unit was working correctly (glad I did because I was out of water) and organize all my things. It’s an actual mannequin head, but when you check in, you are only given an arch. For everyone I know, it was the mandible. They put your labels on everything and they have you confirm all of your info and the version of the exam in the IPAD as they enter it. I started with the calculus detection portion which was on the maxilla and I’m not going to lie…I started to panic a little. The calculus is just DIFFERENT. It did not feel like those definite bumps in this quadrant and you can’t see it. I did the best I could and moved on...I definitely felt better after talking to friends and hearing they felt the same way. Next, I moved to the calculus removal on my quadrant. This calculus was black, all subgingival, and I felt like it came off fairly easily with my ultrasonic. When I started hand scaling, tons of soft white stuff kept coming off. Again…kind of started to panic, until I realized I was taking off “enamel”. I really didn’t feel like I was scaling very hard, but my instruments were recently sharpened, and it seemed like the material that the teeth were made out of was very soft. I actually heard someone nearby ask a monitor about the white material that was coming off and they said that the calculus you were removing was supposed to only be black. I was technically done within 45 minutes but went over everything multiple times and ended up taking about an hour and a half. The probing was really easy and felt confident in my readings. There was a built-in suction which made life easier but one of the more difficult parts was the cheeks. They were so bulky and swallowed my hand whole! The only things that I forgot that I wish I had brought were my floss and gauze. Definitely bring a clip board because that was really nice to have! I know that this is a new exam format and I’m very thankful that it was an option. None of us thought that it was difficult and liked that we didn’t have to worry about betting $1000 on a patient to be healthy and show during this time. If you are taking it soon, let me know on my recent Insta post! You guys will do great! I found out that I officially passed today. -Callie |
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