Culminating Blog Reflection

    During the time of completing my capstone stone project I had to do a lot of thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity in order to complete it. The piece that really required a lot of thinking was me even deciding on a topic to do the essay on. I really wanted it to be something interesting but felt like their was nothing interesting I could choose that was interesting in this career. I spoke to my mentor about it and she had a lot of ideas but the one that seemed to stick out to me the most was her talking about how many people walk into her office everyday and either have or are on the verge of getting gingivitis. Now that I had an idea of what I wanted to do it on I began to ask my mentor more questions about what' goes on in the office and why we even need to go in to see the dentist every six months. Finally I decide since she had told me brushing and flossing won't get the job done to keep your pith healthy I would combine talking about disease that can occur in your mouth and how brushing and flossing couldn't get rid of them.another key thing in this project was communication. At first I was very shy to even talk to my mentor but then I realized if I didn't talk to her I wasn't going to be able to get anything done. Another big reason why I needed to use communication was because I had to talk with a lot of the patients and my mentor knew I was shy so she really pushed me to do so. Collaboration took place when my mentor was helping me come up with a topic to write my essay on. Lastly we used creativity when also picking an essay topic the wasn't boring to read about.

    One thing I feel like I gained from this project was me becoming sociable. I feel like when I first started coming into the office and being around the office I was scared to speak because I was I afraid my mentor might think the questions I was asking were dumb. I was scared to speak to the patients because I thought they might consider me a bother. By the end of the project I found my self asking more questions and becoming confident when I spoke with patients. I feel like me becoming less shy help me both personally and socially. I feel like this helped me personally because I use to be to shy to do just about anything. For example I was way to shy to order my own food at restaurants, call places to make appointments, or during school when teachers let you choose your own groups I wouldn't ask anyone to let me be in their group. This project helped me gain a new type of confidence and I'm happy I got to do it.

    A challenge that I remembered in particular when going into this project was me having to see my mentor give her patients shots because I hate them so much. I remember telling my mom I didn't want to  go int to even see my mentor for this reason. This was also one of the things that determined wether I wanted to pursue this as a career or not. I over came this challenge by just sucking it up and watch the process happen to the patient. My mentor handled her giving the the shot like it was nothing she knew what she was doing and she got it done quick. I thought to myself if she could do it I could so it and eventually I got over it. Another challenge I had to overcome was like I said before me being so shy. In this career you can not be shy you have to be talking to people all day. Communicating is huge part of this job it is how you know what is going on with your patient and during the work you do on the patient it is a way to keep your pairing clam. Me begging to talk more was not just something that came easily. I hade to get more comfortable with the environment first and before I knew I found myself chatting away with everyone in the office.

    Overall I really like the outcome of having to do this project. I think this project made me grow more as a person and mature a little. It really helped me with my future because I have decided I really want to be a dental hygienist. I love the atmosphere of being in an office and I like the feeling you get when you help people. The satisfaction of knowing you helped someone is a great feeling which I hope to receive all the time once I graduate and become a dental hygienist.
 

Last meeting

May 4, 2014

Today my mentor and I decide to meet at her house to go over the book she had gave me and see if I understood everything fine. To sum up the chapter she had advised me to read, it basically talked about how dental hygienist play many roles in their job.  Their are five roles they are being an educator, advocate, researcher, administrator, and a clinician. I will go into further detail about these when I do my physical project. I really liked the book and felt like it was one of the best things I could read to really learn about the career. Whole at my mentors how we discussed the book and she asked if I had any question I had a few but their was one to me that was the most important. When reading through the roles I never really understood what an advocate was.once she explained to me what an advocate did I felt to me it was one of the most important roles ah theist can play. Basically an advocate is their to help and support the patient . They also being awareness to health problems. To me this is the most important role because when you think about it people have trouble doing things with out support from anyone. It's like when your parents support tough decision you make. I felt like some of the roles in the book were things you should use in every day life liking the role of being an advocate. Learning about the roles dental hygienist play made me want to peruse the career even more than I did because you are helping people in so many different ways. 

Time  logged for session: 1 hr

Total time logged: 25 hrs

Fourth meeting

April 30, 2014

Today as soon as I got their we got straight to work. To my surprise today when measuring teeth my mentor did something a little but different. Usually when logging the measurements into the computer she calls over a dental assistant to help her do the job, but today she spoke into a microphone where the computer was able to understand the measurements she was speaking into the microphone and log the measurements in for her. It was cool because I never really realized how advanced technology was and was surprised it was able to do that. It was also surprising me cause right then I realized how dental hygienist have to rely on technology and how much my mentor uses her computer. You use a computer for pretty much everything in the office like finding the patients old records and updating new things into their files. Another cool thing that I didn't expect to see today was the dentist do a filling on a cavity. It caught me by surprise because the dentist whose name is Mr. B just called me over randomly to watch. While being their I not only got to see what dentist do but the job of a dental assistant. Dental assistants have to remember all the different tools and really have to move at a quick pace to keep up with all the work the dentist is doing on the patient. As for the cavity filling it looked really different from what it feels like their doing in your mouth. It amazes me each time I watch a cleaning proceeder that when I'm in the patients chair all the things I'm seeing are have happened to me as we'll. overall today was a pretty interesting day and I still am excited and hope to pursue this career.

Time logged for this session: 2 hrs

Total time logged: 24hrs

The third day

April 29, 2014

Today was a very special day, today was the day my mentor would show me how the X-rays on your teeth work. She had told me she didn't want to take me to do the X-rays each time because every time she shots the picture it gives off a lot of radiation. Not to long after I arrived her patient got their and it was time to begin the process. First she put this thing that looks like a huge bib but it is a lead apron to prevent the radiations from effecting your cells. She also places these pieces of plastic that you need to bite down on in order for the X-ray to take the proper picture of your teeth. Then she exited the area and told me to get behind the wall so the radiation wouldn't effect us. She clicked the button outside the X-ray room and got the picture. So what do we take X-rays for? We'll my mentor explained to me they are very important because they show us if there's bone loss, cavities, tooth decay, or any gym diseases.  Overall today we worked on three patients and she preformed regular teeth cleanings where for each I got to watch and learn how to preform an X-ray in the future.

Time logged for session: 2 hours

Time logged in total: 22hours

Another day in the office

April 28, 2014

Monday was my second time coming into the dental office and I felt a little more confident going into the office and communicating with my mentor and her coworkers. Before she began on any patients she did the process of cleaning in her work space that I explained from the first time I came in. This time my mentor told me to focus more on the way she speaks to the patient. She told me it was very important to explain things clearly. When she spoke with a patient when explain things she used a lot of hand gestures. Also when explaining your teeth and gums she gave a really cool example. She told the patient to pretend her hand was their tooth and pretend her glove line was our gums, she then used this example to teach the patients how to brush properly of show them the effects of gingivitis. Another way she explained things to the patients was with booklets she had and with models of the mouth that were in the office. I also noticed the patients asking her questions about different brands of tooth paste, tooth brushes, mouth wash, and teeth whitener. It was interesting to me because she knew the answer to each of their questions. Later when I asked her about she told me a dental hygienist is not only someone that cleans your teeth as she had told me before they are also researchers. What this means is you must take time off the job to look up studies on things your patients ask you about. She also said sometimes when she hears of a new dental item she goes into the store and buys it to see how it works. Another thing I caught onto other than her explaining things was the questions she asked the patients and how they responded. Today not one of her patients said they flossed regularly and more than half of them were close to having gingivitis. When working on patients teeth she also measured how deep the bone was which was pretty interesting because deeping on how far her tool goes until she hits the bone is how much bone in your teeth you have lost during the years. She told me that it's okay to lose some bone but it is dangerous to lose to much and if you have lost a lot you most likely have peridontitis. It was also really interesting because today I got to see her do a deep cleaning. For the deep cleaning she had to give the patient four shots on each side. You only get a deep cleaning when your gingivitis is getting really bad. Overall today was very interesting and I can't wait to go in one more time. 

Time logged for session: 10 hrs

Total time logged: 20 hrs

For the first time

April 23, 2014

Although i've been in a dental office many times Wednesday was the first time i was their viewing the dental visit from my hygienists perspective. When you are just a patient you never realize that a dental hygienst isnt only a "tooth cleaner", they have many other responsibilities they must first conquer before completing or even starting the process of cleaning your teeth. Today my mentor and I focused on one of the most basic things but also the biggest thing you must do before you start working on the teeth of a patient. That super important thing was cleaning, you must make sure everything is cleaning because in the end it not only benifits your patient but everybody in your office including you. First she thought me that each time you are going to begin work on patient you must get new tools. The tools get put onto a clean trey but not directly on the trey, you must put a sheet down before putting all the tools on the trey. She said it was super important to grab new tools each time because it prevents the spread of bacteria and diseases. What happens to the handpiecce tools that cannot be removed like the vaccum and water? Well my mentor showed me how you must get a tube filled with solution and the tubes thwe hand tools run through are disconnectable. Once you remove the tube you out onto a piece where the cleaning sloution comes out, turn on the tool, and the tube will suck the solution in and filter out all the bacteria inside. Last but not least we had to disinfect the place where the patient is going to be and that was the chair we used clorox wipes to wipe down the chair and the light that flashes into your mouth. I also sat throw my mentore actually working on a few patients. Todya she only preformed regualr teeth cleanings but she told me next time i came in she would show me how a deep cleaning was. My mentor also provided me with a book about all the different roles dental hygenist have, i think it will be very interesting.

Time logged for this session: 10 hrs
Total time logged: 10 hrs