Dental Hygiene

The question comes up a lot: How do I expand my career outside of the clinical setting? It is quite difficult to answer this question. Not because there are no opportunities, there’s actually many. It’s because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to answer this question. It really depends on you, as an individual; including your particular goals, expectations, skillset, and what...

Not many people like going to a dental office, whether it’s because of the amount of time that is spent or because of dental anxiety. Therefore, as dental hygienists, we try our very best to ensure that each patient has a smooth time in the office and our patients feel comfortable. However, there are a few things that patients...

There are many misconceptions regarding oral hygiene and the mouth that some of our patients believe to be true. With a large amount of false information found online, it’s no wonder our patients can be easily led in the wrong direction when it comes to oral health. It’s always important to remember that just because you read something online, doesn’t...

In December 2016, the world of dentistry lost a remarkable and groundbreaking woman, just three days after her 100th birthday. Esther Wilkins, the "matriarch of dental hygiene" was first licensed as a hygienist in 1939, and presided over decades of revolutionary changes in oral health and dental practice. Her long career in the field spanned sweeping changes such as: The evolving...

Disclosure: We value transparency at Today’s RDH. This article is sponsored content from Crest/Oral-B as part of our sponsored partner program. Children, precious, innocent, at times a little difficult! Any parent or grandparent understands the amount of work it takes to raise a child. Children need and deserve our complete attention, direction and guidance to succeed in every way. We all want...

A big part of mainstream media is criminal investigations and law enforcement dramas. Most of the time, these involve missing persons or murder investigations. As a dental hygienist, this brought about some interest in determining if it was possible to identify a person from a single tooth. There are several different manners of using teeth to identify a person; the...

It is that time of year when the kids start a new school year, and many participate in school sports programs. Although schools attempt to keep our children safe on and off the field, the regulations for athletic mouth guards are not consistent with the need to prevent injury in the majority of school-based sports. A dental professional has...

It is no secret there is a need for quality dental care worldwide. Many areas, both nationally and internationally, are in dire need for preventative and restorative dental care and do not have the professional workforce to provide care. For some of us, it’s easy to lose sight of how impactful our skill set can be. By sharing my...

On Wednesday, February 6th, 2019 the Washington State Legislature proposed bills in both the House and Senate that will allow dental assistants to perform dental hygiene procedures with nothing more than a "one-time training." Specifically, if these bills pass, dental assistants will be able to do the following: Perform dental prophylaxis with supragingival scaling; Perform periodontal probing; and Perform gross...

Dear CVS, As a dental professional, I am writing with serious concerns associated with your recent partnership with a do-it-yourself orthodontic company. Upon looking into this company, I discovered they are quick to threaten or pursue litigation against anyone that questions their ethics, safety of patients, or quality of work they provide. For this reason, in an attempt to avoid...