Dental Hygiene

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2019), approximately 60% to 70% of women experience gingivitis and early periodontitis during pregnancy. Periodontal disease is a common inflammatory disease consisting of two components, gingivitis and periodontitis. Gingivitis is inflammation of the soft tissue surrounding the teeth and gingiva. Periodontitis is the inflammatory reaction responsible for the destruction of...

As a practicing dental hygienist, I know every day I will fail to perfectly communicate the importance of diligent daily oral health care to a patient. I would like to believe that every single instance where a patient presents with gingivitis or incipient decay, I would be able to impress upon them the need to clean interdentally once, brush...

Have you started using the miracle in a tube? Every day we treat patients with dentinal hypersensitivity that makes the appointment uncomfortable or fearful. Worse yet are dental patients who choose not to seek treatment because of perceived pain that may occur. We now have a treatment option that is fast, affordable, proven, and long-acting. Anywhere Anytime by Colgate is...

Flexible schedules. Independence. Zero benefits. What do all these have in common? The answer: temping! Whether you consider temping to be a regular part of your career—or whether you’ve sworn it off completely— you should know that in the last decade dental hygienists who’ve made the choice to temp have gone from being an uncommon occurrence to becoming a popular...

A study and subsequent articles recently cited lower IQ measurements for children whose mothers ingested fluoride during pregnancy, creating a paranoid frenzy among parents. The article stated that the ingestion of fluoridated water by an expectant mother decreased the IQ of the child by 2.5 points on a 200-point IQ test scale.1 The study in question is deeply flawed. Please...

Do you ever experience sharp pain, almost like a lightning bolt hit your tooth, when drinking a cold beverage, eating ice cream, or when breathing in cold air? Maybe sweet, sour, or hot food and beverages cause discomfort? Or even brushing and flossing gives you a zinger? If any of these sound familiar to you, you aren’t alone. It...

Dentistry has advanced in plenty of ways, including techniques, equipment, and the science behind it all. Unfortunately, as we age, instead of improving as dentistry does, we degrade due to stresses on the body. In hygiene, our bodies are not only affected ergonomically, but now that screens and electronics are so integrated into our daily lives, it’s only logical...

What do we really know about toothpaste abrasion? I always thought the relative dentin abrasivity (RDA) was a key factor when choosing toothpaste for our patients, hoping that the amount of recession as well as the overall wear on enamel would be reduced. Shock! I was so wrong! The RDA was simply a test designed in 1976 to determine abrasion...

An elderly female patient recently presented with hypothyroidism. Her health history documented that she was taking Synthroid. While verbally reviewing and updating her health history, she stated that she also took an OTC thyroid vitamin but did not know its name. She also disclosed that she is seeing an herbalist who is having her rub two essential oils (lemongrass...

Typically, by this time each year the novelty of a brand-new year has worn off, and we find ourselves well on our way back into the daily humdrum of this thing that we call life. As dental hygienists, this means beginning another cycle of six-month recalls—seeing our favorite and not-so-favorite patients, scrubbing down our ops every hour, and trying...