Dental Hygiene

Disclosure: This article is sponsored content from Designs for Vision as part of our sponsored partner program. The mere thought of how I ever practiced my dental hygiene career without loupes is unfathomable. Loupes have assisted me in my career by improving my posture, as well as reducing musculoskeletal disorders and hand fatigue. In addition, loupes help perform dental procedures with...

After a long, anticipating wait, you have been selected to enter hygiene school. You did all the prerequisites, got good grades, and now you are here! In two or three years, depending on your program, you will enter the respectable and rewarding dental profession. Two years do not sound like much, but trust me, the days are packed in a...

March 2020 has forever changed our world as well as the way we treat patients in the dental setting. Adhering to strict Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines to ensure the safety and health of our patients, ourselves, and co-workers have been the standard of care since AIDS surfaced in the 1980s. The onset of COVID-19 has required...

Dental ethics is “a system of principles governing the dental practice, a moral obligation to render the best quality of dental services to the patient and to maintain an honest relationship with other professionals and society.”1 Dental ethics plays an integral role in the daily practice of dental hygiene and infiltrate the “how” to proceed, the “why” to proceed,...

Dental hygienists have their share of ups and downs ─ something that is probably true of most professions. Most days are typically good and glide along smoothly. Occasionally, a hygienist will have one of those days when everything that can go wrong does. Dental patients inevitably can have an impact on the way the workday unfolds. For example, are they...

Most career paths have a stereotype associated with them, which is usually untrue. For example, doctors are known for having "chicken scratch" handwriting. Librarians are known as little, old ladies with glasses, and police officers are rumored to love donuts. While these stereotypes were meant to be humorous, they don't define the careers. Several years ago, before I was even...

The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) defines the competencies required for entering the practice of dental hygiene. The four core competencies are health promotion/disease prevention, patient/client care, community involvement, and professional growth and development."3 The five-page ADEA document breaks down these core competencies into five domains. Each domain was then broken into numerous individual competencies. The domain directly associated with...

So many dental hygienists aspire to leave the operatory. The why doesn’t matter. It is just their time to transition out of clinical care. As it happens, the road isn’t necessarily quick and easy, and you do need to do a little planning. I decided to interview my good friend Maria Smith who has done just that. She moved very...

Years ago, when someone mentioned yoga to me, my mind conjured up an image of posed individuals meditating while practicing serious dragon breathing in a room full of incense and feng shui music. As a runner, I began reading articles and researching how yoga was beneficial for those who ran. A quick search on the web yielded educational results...

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