Dental Hygiene

As a hygienist, I’m usually skeptical of new products that come on the market until I can actually research and try them out myself. Like most hygienists, I’ve had patients who ask me about a new toothbrush or toothpaste and want to get a hygienist’s opinion. Although I try to stay up to date on all things oral care,...

Sometimes it feels like we need a code red to determine which code best suits our patient’s particular dental condition. I am sure we have all been there. Do we use D4355 for Debridement or just start with D4341 or D4342? Do I use the Gingivitis code D4366 or just fight through a Prophylaxis with the D1110 code and...

Networking can be intimidating, but it is necessary for your continued success. Networking is a form of communication in the professional world. Networking can occur inside and outside the dental profession. As with many things in life, it’s who you know. I’ll use my father as an example. He is not in the dental profession, but he is a professional...

Sixty years ago, Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman made a speech to the American Physical Society concerning manufacturing at the dimension of atoms and molecules.  He spoke about the many inventive possibilities that may follow and encouraged the creation of methods for measurement and manufacturing at nanoscale levels. That speech was the beginning of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Since then,...

We all took that class. It was the class where we tried not to fall asleep during our first year as dental hygiene students. We knew there was important information during the lectures, but we hoped that we would never have to experience an ethical dilemma. Now here you are in your dental office faced with a situation that needs...

It is a typical Monday morning, and your eight o’clock patient is running late, medical history needs to be updated, due for radiographs, annual full-mouth probing due, periodontal maintenance scheduled, and a doctor exam. Whew, that’s a lot to start the morning. As you begin the appointment, you work efficiently and as quickly as you can to get back...

My roommate and I are both hygienists, which often makes for some entertaining discussions over dinner after we both finish up our workdays and get home. Between the two of us, we have worked at a few different dental offices, have seen a variety of office cultures, met our fair share of dentists, and have often talked about the...

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...

When was the last time you let yourself love others at work? I mean really, truly love. I mean the kind of love that songs are written about and we reserve mainly for our children and spouse? The kind of self-sacrificing, laborious love that takes effort? The kind that we stand-in-awe of and bend over backward for? Come up empty?...

The dental community is in a continual search for better dental materials and treatment options to provide an affordable, durable, and improved quality of care for its patients. The Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Dentistry has recently developed a filling material that is “two times more resistant than standard filling” materials presently used in dentistry.1  Currently,...