#13 Who's Who in the Dental Office - Dental Assistant Edition

There are many team members that make up a dental office. This is Part 2 of our three part series on “Who’s Who in the Dental Office”. This week we talk to two dental assistants as they share what its like being a dental assistant. They answer some of your most pressing questions and share some fun stories. Tune in as Roxy and Diego join us on the show and share some insight into the world of dental assisting.

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Audio Transcript:

Welcome to DM Adentist, your friendly neighborhood podcast where Dr. Rusty and Dr. Mike are here to make dental care approachable for everyone because everyone deserves a healthy smile without the fear. Well, welcome back! Today we have two special guests for our next interview series, Who’s Who in the Dental Office Part 2. Today we have two of our dental assistants. We have Roxy and Diego, two of my favorites. Roxy, how long have you been a dental assistant? I’ve been a dental assistant for about 10 years now. Okay, awesome. And Diego, what about you? Been a dental assistant for about 7 years now. Okay, nice, love it, love it, okay. And you know, I know a lot of people, you know, we talked about it previously in our basic introduction to The Who’s Who about like the dental assistant roles and things, but a lot of people aren’t familiar with what a dental assistant, some people haven’t called a dental nurse to do, right? How would you describe what you all do on a day to day? You know, I feel like we’re honestly the doctors right hand. We do a lot that I feel like the patients don’t necessarily see. We welcome the patients, we triage the patients. We do a little bit of everything, honestly. So triage, what is that like if a new patient is coming in or like they have a problem, like what do you mean by triage? So we will sit the patient down and kind of figure out what’s going on with the patient and let the doctor know we, there’s a lot of communication with what we do. So just kind of communicating with what the patient tells us and then letting the doctor know what is going on. So the patient doesn’t feel like they are repeating themselves. True. Yeah, that’s important because a lot of times I feel like that’ll happen where you know, they come in and they’re like, hey, this tooth is hurting me. It happened X amount of days ago. And then I come in and I’m like, hey, what’s going on? And then like this tooth broke. It happened X amount of days ago. I just told them that I feel like patients really are eyes along when they have to repeat themselves. So if I can limit that, that’s great. But yeah, we do, we do a lot that people don’t necessarily see. For sure, a lot of behind the scene stuff too, right? Like all the like sterilization, like slipping room, setting up rooms, helping chair side, like tons of rolls that you all have in the office for sure. So, and another big role I think that the dental assistant has is to like help chair side with patients, right? A lot of patients that are coming are really anxious or nervous to be there, right? Like being in the dental chair isn’t the most fun experience. We get it. So like what are some things that you can do to help keep patients more calm and more relaxed and just kind of help them have like an overall better experience, especially for someone who may be like kind of nervous or scared. Exactly. But Diego and myself, we both have a calming demeanor about us. Right. So, I mean, he’s so soft spoken. I’m so soft spoken. So I feel like that’s a big thing. Right. We’re not really rushing the procedure or whatever it is that we’re getting done. We, I mean, just making sure patients feel comfortable and letting them know we have the time for them today and letting, asking them what maybe their fear might be of the dentist. Right. So we can reassure them that. I mean, we’re here for you. Right. So I feel like you’re pretty soft spoken. So like, Diego, what are like some common fears that people will have in the dental office? Like, what are some things that people will be afraid of and what are some ways we can kind of make that better for them? Yeah, like usually like shots, noises that are coming out of the instruments. Yeah. I feel like a big one is the childhood trauma. Childhood trauma. Right. Because it is the childhood trauma. I mean, just knowing I said it back in the day. Yeah. I mean, we’re not that old, but I mean, we get it a lot. I’ve heard that so many times where it’s like the dentist in New Sanesthetic. I wasn’t fully numb. And like those childhood traumas were really stick with you. And now they’re coming as an adult when dentistry has changed a lot in the past few decades, right? Like, we’re much more updated with like digital stuff with, you know, techniques. And I think younger dentists are more, I don’t know, patient focused. I guess there’s a way to put it, right? Where we’re really focused on the patient experience. It’s kind of like customer service is a super important part of our job. And especially what y’all do as assistants, like, you know, they’re going to come in and I’m the dentist, so I’m wearing the white code. And so they’re going to just immediately, like, I have a level of authority. They’re going to trust, right? Because I’m the doctor and I have the white code. But for y’all, they’re not going to immediately have that trust. And so it’s super important that you guys like build that rapport with them and you both do such a good job, you know, just like making small talk, making conversation, getting them comfortable. And then I think just figuring out what specific triggers are going to like cause anxiety for someone or fear. And then, you know, like, at our practice, we have like that comfort menu, right? And it’s like, well, we have noise canceling headphones. We have weighted blankets. We have all these things to help people just be like a little bit more comfortable. So I feel like personally the blanket tops it. I mean, just you’re kick your shoes off. Yeah. Yeah. Kick comfy. I mean, and it’s hot for us in the office because we’re wearing like coats and gowns and I wear this whole, you know, monkey suit while I work. And so here we are. And it gets hot for us. So we keep it cool in the office. And though you colictus is not my favorite. That’s what I was going to say. Essential oil. But, smells. That smells. I will handle it. Okay, so we have what peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender. What are you going to choose? We also have orange. Orange? We have lemon. Whoa. I didn’t know that. Okay. We’ll go with lavender for sure. Lavender? Lavender? Lavender? Okay. Okay. Lavender? Dr. Moodie’s voted for lavender. Okay. But you don’t know how many drops people are bringing on. How many drops? Yeah. I did three in my mask the other day. And I was like, I can still smell her. But yeah. It lingers. It lingers. It lingers. But hey, it’s all good. So, you know, again, it’s super important, I think, to help people just feel more comfortable, especially with new patients, right? Because it’s like the first time they’re coming to the practice, the first time they’re meeting the team, they’re seeing the front desk. Maybe it’s new insurance. They’re using for the first time. So it’s a lot of like scary things going on. They also have the box on the health history that says, your level of dental anxiety. True. And a lot of people deny their level of dental anxiety. But we know it’s there. Yeah, it’s there. We’re here to calm your nerves. And I want to say also at this point, I think it’s important to say it’s totally normal for you to have dental anxiety when you’re in the chair. Like, when I’m in the chair, I’m nervous. My heart rates up. Like, I don’t know. Are you all, if you’re in the patient? The pressure is always up. Yeah, right? It’s normal to like be a little bit tense, a little anxious, so totally normal, totally normal. So since it’s so normal, like if you have a new patient that’s coming in, do you have like a good icebreaker or a good question you’re asking, something to kind of help ease that tension and just help them start to build that rapport? Like, how do you initiate that? Yeah. What do you do? I’m usually just asking them about their day, how they’re going, something that will distract them from them being in the chair. Right. A personable, like, personable, really, a little bit of a thing. It’s like, yeah, we’re health care, but we’re also customer service, right? So it’s like, it’s like a bartender. It’s like someone at Trader Joe’s, the cashier, right? They’re going to try to be friends with you in that moment to help make that experience better for you. And no one’s scared to check out at Trader Joe’s. I can usually tell my new patients anxiety level by their blood pressure. And I will comment on their blood pressure every time. Right. I mean, and we always have that box checked, like, what kind of, what is your level? I, a dental anxiety, like, for the most part, like, are you anxious? Like, what, and just trying to get to the bottom of what is making you anxious about your appointment today? I feel like different things like trigger people. Like, for example, the shot, yeah, for example, um, X-rays, yeah, we don’t know what kind of experience they’ve had with X-rays. Right. Because I know so does they’re uncomfortable. They can’t be. Yeah, they are. They are. I mean, the digital X-rays are super great because it’s immediate and I know they’re, I can see what we get. But the sensor is hard. Yeah. It’s harder than the old school film X-rays. So it’s not comfortable. So I mean, a lot of the time, like, the vitals are new to some patients. Like, a lot of patients aren’t used to having their blood pressure taken. Yeah. So when we do take it, they are like alert and they’re just like, well, that’s high for me. Right. So let’s try to calm them down. Like, we tend to elevate people’s blood pressure. Right. That’s true. I mean, in some people have that white coat syndrome. Right. Right. I’ve had providers that have been patients. I’m like, is it possible for providers to have that white coat syndrome? Yeah, it is. There is an aisle. Yeah. But it is. It is. It is. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that’s a super important step that we do, you know, we do it for all of our patients, but especially patients we’re giving anesthetic to. Right. Because anesthetic that we give, it has adrenaline in it. And so it’s going to like raise your blood pressure a little bit just from giving you that shot. And so knowing that kind of baseline is important. But a lot of people, you know, we’ve gotten some some feedback, you know, like, hey, why are you taking my blood pressure? This isn’t a doctor’s office. Why are you doing this? And it’s so important. And I think there’s so many things we do in dentistry that people aren’t necessarily aware of. And they don’t really know. As an assistant, is there anything that either of you feel like people may be surprised about that you do or maybe think you do and you don’t do in the office? Definitely the blood pressure. Yeah. Yeah. I always get like, why are you taking my blood pressure? I’ve never had a dentist or an dental get a blood pressure. Take him in, right? Right. Oxygen or like the oxygen. Yeah. Even temperature. Right. We’re very thorough. We do. Not only blood pressure, but we do like pulse oximetry. We do temperature on every single patient. We do it all. And it’s important to check because the blood pressure, if we’re giving anesthetic, that’s going to affect you. If we’re doing sedation, the amount of oxygen you have in your blood, breathing normal air is important. So these things are important just to keep you safe. Not only is it required by me by law, but it’s important to keep you safe. And that’s where my heart is. And the most important thing to me is to keep our patient safe. Yeah. And the most important thing is that we take vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, vital, but we’ve, I mean, in my history of dentistry, we’ve caught a lot of high blood pressure. And patients are grateful that we do take that because they don’t see their primary care as much as they do. And they’re like, “I never even knew I had high blood pressure.” Like, you know, thank you for figuring this out and telling me something. We’ve been able to get blood pressure monitors at home just to keep them safe. For sure. For sure. So this is a little bit of a trending thing on TikTok that I’ve seen. And I just wanted to get y’all’s too opinion. I know how I feel about it, for sure, but I want to see what the two of y’all think about it. So when you’re a patient in a chair, right, you’re laying there, they’re, they’re drilling on your teeth, they’re doing whatever. Should you keep your eyes open or closed during treatment? I think it depends on your anxiety level. Okay. Okay. Me personally, I would probably give my eyes closed. I don’t see, I don’t want to see a drill coming into my mouth. I don’t want to see a needle coming into my mouth. Yeah, right, right. But I think it depends on your anxiety level. Yeah, yeah. I agree. I feel like eyes closed for sure. I mean, I feel like you have that reaction to pull back when you do see a 20 gauge needle coming towards your feet. Right, right. Yeah, they’re long. I mean, they’re big and it’s coming to your mouth. You don’t want to see what we’re doing. I mean, generally, I feel like patients are, yeah, hey, I’m getting a filling here. Yeah. But there’s a lot that goes into the filling process that they don’t know. Yeah. That it doesn’t really benefit them to see. And so, you know, like one of my friends was, I was, he was telling me about a filling he had. And he was like, the dentist seemed like there was like something going wrong and he was like blowing air a lot. And like, I don’t know, he like squirted something up there and did a do and he like mentioned blood. And I was like, I’m bleeding. What’s going on? Like, why am I bleeding? Right? Yeah. You bleed every single time you get a filling, even in a really healthy mouth. You’re gonna bleed. Your gums are gonna bleed. We’re cutting into your tooth. And then you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something. And then you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something. And then you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something. And then you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something. And then you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something, you’re gonna be able to do something. True, true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, apart from keeping eyes open, what would be, do you have any like big pet peeves or things that as if you’re a dental patient, you know, what do you not want to do that might annoy an assistant or a dentist? Like what’s some of your pet peeves? I would say one of my pet peeves is patients refusing x-rays. And that’s okay, I get it, like the radiation scares a lot of patients. Right. But for us as dental providers, I’m the first face that you see. And so when you tell me you don’t want x-rays, I have to go to the dentist, you don’t want x-rays and then the dentist is concerned on how he’s going to, I mean, diagnose what you might need. So, it’s tough. So, I think we’re never gonna overexpose you to radiation, but just kind of you’re coming into the dental office, we need, I mean, x-rays. So, bottle line just refusing x-rays, I think. Yeah. I might not be a pet peeve, but I mean, you definitely need those x-rays. Well, and people are really worried about, like, I think radiation, maybe some people because they’re uncomfortable, but I think the majority of the concern is radiation. Yeah. And with digital x-rays, like, the radiation is so low. Like, you get a couple bananas, you fly across the country, you’ve got that radiation. The same amount you’re gonna get in a typical set of x-rays. So, like, don’t eat bananas, don’t fly. Don’t leave your house, don’t use a phone. Like, all these things that give you, like, minor amounts of radiation add up to significantly more. And, like, a medical CT is so much higher than a dental set of x-rays is. And, like, no one’s ever, like, hey, I don’t want to get this medical CT for this massive procedure I need. Yeah. But, we’re about to drill in something a bone in your mouth that, you know, you only got 32 of them. Maximum. Yeah. And, if we don’t know what’s going on, you know, like, I don’t know. And, I really like to express, like, the full series of x-rays that you do need. You only need every five years. True. Not gonna be exposing you this much. When you come in for your dental cleanings, but it is important. And, we also, like, our office, we take a full-mouth series. So, it’s, what, 18 images inside and the panoramic, right, that spins around the head. Insurance companies don’t pay for both. And, it’s so stupid. But, I’m not gonna limit myself on the information I can get for you as a patient based on what your insurance is gonna pay for. And, so, what we do is we take the full-mouth series, we build that to your insurance, we take the panoramic that spins around the head at no charge. And, I think that’s a fantastic way to do it. I mean, we could very well charge for that. And, and produce a lot. It’s expensive. And, we could, we could make a lot more money to be quite frank. But, you know, at the end of the day, I don’t want my patients to pay for something that they don’t necessarily value. But, it gives me a lot of helpful information. We’re screening for pathology in the job. We’re looking for, you know, your TMJ, your jaw joint, all sorts of soft tissue neck, you know. You’ve seen, what is it that? The carotid artery, right? Like, the carotid artery we see in that panor. We saw a guy, again, back to blood pressure. His blood pressure was like 190 over 120, outrageously high. And, he had like thick plaques in his carotid artery. So, he’s at like such a high risk for a stroke. Yeah. And, we alerted him to this and he was super thankful, right? He’s like, I’m going to go find a doctor right now and get my blood pressure on control. He’s probably going to have to have his arteries cleaned out because it’s just, it’s built up. But, it’s such an important screening tool. So, the exercises are good. And, offices I haven’t worked at, and we take that pre-extra before we go to do treatment. And, you see an abscess at the root, because we weren’t taking those extra’s regularly. So, then it’s like, okay, a change of treatment. It’s very important to take those extra’s. Yeah. Diego, besides X-rays, any pet peeves that you have? I think you’re questioning the treatment plan. Because obviously, you’re there for the best interest of the patient. And, you want the best for them. So, when you’re asking, oh, you’re going to need a crown here. You’re hoping that they will trust your judgment. You’re like, okay, I do need a crown here. Because there’s been a few patients where it’s like, oh, I don’t need that. I don’t need this. Sure, sure. It’s like, in reality, you really do. Because it’s going to affect your, your biting or your, you know, your, your living day by day. Something’s going to break on the weekend. It’s going to turn into a emergency. Like, you’re paying us as dentists for our expertise and our experience. And so when someone comes in and we’re like, hey, I see this tooth. I see this problem. You know, we do a good job explaining that I think where we’re showing them pictures of their tooth. We’re showing them X-rays. We’re, we’re explaining things why it’s needed to people. And then for them to be like, I’m good. You know, it is frustrating. It’s tough when you explain it very thoroughly at one appointment in the patient returns. And they don’t quite understand. But I feel like it’s overwhelming. You come and see us. You don’t think anything is going on. And then we explain to you. You need treatment. And then they come back for their appointment. And they just want to be reassured, which we’re, I mean, happy to do. Yeah, happy to do. Yeah, happy to do. And we’ll explain it as many times as you need, you know, answer questions, all the things. Yeah. It is like you say, it’s really overwhelming, right? For us, this is our every day. Yeah. For patients, it’s at best twice a year. Yeah. And so for them, it can be really overwhelming. Like, oh my gosh, I have something on every single tooth you’re watching or treatment planning or something. But we’re just trying to be thorough. We’re trying to be the best interest of them. And can we touch based on patients that come to us for second opinion? Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely, definitely. What are your thoughts on that? I’m okay with second opinions because there are dentist out there. I mean, maybe bigger corporations that might overdiagnose for smaller things. Sure. And so, I mean, we’re here to reassure you that you might need that done, but you might not need that done. So, I feel like we’re great at that because, I mean, I don’t feel like our doctors are overdiagnosed by any means, but. Well, it’s like the old saying, you know, you ask nine dentists for treatment planning and you’ll get ten different ideas. So, one of them is going to have two. Yeah. You know, it’s everyone’s a little different in how they see things, how their training is, where they’re at in their career, what their confidence level is. Are we charging for second opinions or what? It depends. How do you feel about that? It depends. I mean, as long as we have, you know, receiving their x-rays from the other office, that’s a huge thing. So, signing like a record’s release if you want a second opinion so that your old dentist or last office you saw can send those x-rays. So, you can avoid that radiation, you can avoid the uncomfortability of it. I can see them though, as long as they come over in a decent format and not like a single crappy blurry PDF. As long as we can know what their treatment plan was, I think that’s super helpful. But it does still take a lot of our time. And so, I think at least, charging for a limited exam or things of that nature is really reasonable. Because a lot of times these patients are going to be just needing a little more time. They’re very aware of what’s going on in their mouth and they’re concerned about it. And they’re wanting to figure out more information about it. And so, typically, they’re going to have a lot of questions. It’s just going to require more of my time. Time is money. Of course, we’re going to have to charge a little bit for a second opinion. But I’m not going to charge you for the full set of x-rays if we can get them in all the things. And one thing I feel like our office does is we take time with our patients. I mean, we’re smaller because our office is very big. But we just have that more… I feel like we have a more personal feel for our office though. Our dentists are going to take more time to explain. And I feel like a lot of patients have come in on the way you explain. Over-explain, which is not a bad thing. I talk a lot. Yeah, he loves answering questions. So ask them all your questions. I get done with the most basic feeling, Albert. I’m like, “What questions do you have?” Okay, no more questions. We got to go. DM the dentist. I love answering questions. No more questions. He’s on a time-cr�� But no. No, the more questions, the better. You definitely…you and all the doctors that we work with are very thorough with the questions. So I feel like patients are more just at ease with our treatment plans. If it is a second opinion, they definitely understand what we’re coming from. And the technology we use. We use the digital scans. We’re showing people their teeth. You’re seeing it. I’m seeing it. You’re like, “Hey, maybe there’s something here. You know, legally you can’t diagnose stuff.” But you’ve looked at what… You’ve been in dentistry longer than I have both of you. So you see stuff on X-rays and you’re like, “Maybe doctors are going to recommend this here.” And I think that’s helpful to show the patient their problem, help them own that problem, and kind of roll with it from that stuff. Do you think technologies come along with this? From going from an office that would still use fixer and developer? And going to digital? Do you even know what that is, doctor? I know, I learned about it in dental history 101. Never changed. He’s never used film. He’s never used film. Okay, never. Okay, when us… In dental assisting school, we were still changing the fixer and developer. Well, that’s good because what if you got a job at a dentist just so using it? When I was… When I got to school, we were changing the paper charts. Oh, yeah. A paper charts. The last office I worked at had paper charts. But they were now digital. And I would have to reference some of the paper charts. And I was like, “Don’t even read that.” You can’t even read that. Don’t even get… Like, literally that wastes my time. Because I still don’t know what’s going on. And it just wastes my time to try to read this cursive writing that is illegible. And it says, like, best case scenario number 12 filling completed. Yeah, what is it? What is it? How’d you do it? How much NSSAC did you get? Were they nervous? Like, I write a note a mile long for something like this. And it’s like filling complete number 12 done. So, which granted, if you had to write all of our notes by hand, could you imagine? They wouldn’t be nearly as thorough. We have templates. Yep. Fill in the blanks. Because granted, if you’re coming in for a filling, you’re coming in for a filling. If it’s the same tooth and the same filling, I’m doing almost the same exact thing. Every time. Yeah. If there’s something out of the norm that happens, patients acting weird, the cavity is bigger than we thought. You know, weird stuff occasionally happens. We’ll add on to the template, but it’s usually like the same note. Yeah. Any of the sparring toys? Yeah. And if you have a special need, we’re going to make note of that. If you like two pillows over one pillow, we’re going to bring you two pillows. Two pillows. And we’re ready. You open the patient and start saying, “Oller, oller, oller, five pillows. No anesthet, duh, duh, duh, duh.” You know, you know, like the epinephrine. There’s some patients that don’t react with epinephrine, as some other patients would. Yeah. We have big elites that pop up. Yep. Epinephrine, that’s the adrenaline in the anesthetic. Kind of gets that heart thumping, so some people really hate it. Yeah. You know, the dental office, it can be scary, right? It’s very scary for people, but there’s also a lot of fun things, especially as a back office. We’re laughing a lot of the day at different things that happen. What are some like funny moments that you’ve had as an assistant? We like to prank people. We do. Yeah. We like to take the batteries out of the keyboards in the mice in your office. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, pranking the doctors, pranking the doctors. That’s good. The other day. Do we? The sticky note attacks, right? The sticky note. The sticky note all over his computer, or monitor, right? You wrapped his desk? Yeah. Like it was his birthday, but it wasn’t, and they like wrapped it in, you know, if you’ve seen the office like when they wrapped a white desk up, it was kind of like that. But we have cameras in our office, so. Yeah. Don’t go pulling batteries out of things. Yeah. Or, I mean. Or getting in the corner and scaring someone. Yeah. There’s a lot of jump scares at the office. Yeah. Any funny moments with patients, Roxy? Um, yes. When the doctor pronounces the patient’s name wrong. The entire appointment. Who could, who could that be? Dr. Croc’s figure. I mean, that was me. That was me. And I gave him all the warnings and all the heads up, but the whole appointment. It was like a, how many times you called in the wrong name? Okay. Try to use people’s name a lot. And usually it’s beneficial, but not if you’re saying it wrong. Yeah. With the patient corrects you the first time. Well, the patient corrected you. Yeah. And then you corrected and then changed it on the little paper where I could clearly see. And you like underlined the part of this guy’s name that was like the pronunciation part. Yeah. And I just didn’t even see it or think of it. I’m just focused on the teeth and the mouth, the shoes handle and everything else, right? And over here, like, it’s right. But he never corrected me once. And I said this guy’s name wrong, like what, 15 times maybe? I feel like you overused his name. That appointment. I’ve never heard you say a patient’s name so many times it was wrong. That’s one reason we put tags on the side. Yeah. So I immediately know their name. Yeah. It’s very uncomfortable when the patient corrects you but not the dentist. And a lot of times they’ll say that like they’ll be rude to you all or they’ll be like. That’s another thing. That’s not my name. I’m not taking X-rays. I’m not doing this. But then I walk in and they’re like, hey, they love the white coat. They love hate the white coat. For example, like when you’re telling them, okay, you’re coming in for an emergency. What’s the problem? They’ll tell you one thing. Dentist comes in. They’ll tell you. Hold their friends. Hold their friends. I’m like, that doesn’t come on. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know. What did you tell a patient the other you did not hear it from me? You heard it from the front office. I don’t remember. Oh. It was when they called in. They told the front office one thing. I got it. And he came in and said, oh, so Roxy told me this about you and I’m like, I just never told me that. Because we have these like notes, right? It’s like this patient is nervous about this or they’re concerned about this or they’re from here or they’re here for this, right? But I don’t necessarily know exactly who put that note in, right? Like it’s there and I see there’s information. I just assume it’s you. Not always the case. So if I say, but I will say, I mean, honestly, do our patients know your Roxy and that’s Rene maybe, maybe not, if they’re really, really focusing maybe, but I mean, a lot of times they’re like, what was your name again? They’re like, Oh, and I can see them thinking that they want to remember your name, but they’re so overwhelmed with everything. They’re like, what did what’s your name again? You know, and a lot of times that they’re just overwhelmed. Yeah. So it’s, it’s, and again, we’re trying to build that connection, build that rapport. So it’s like, you know, I know you express this concern. I’m trying to touch base on that soon when I walk in the room so I can see your concern and address that first. But I feel like it’s awkward sometimes. I feel like it’s awkward sometimes. We’re like, this way she has all these concerns. You have to remember all those concerns. And they don’t want any x-rays. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, it’s hard. So since “Denistry” is so hard, you know, if you weren’t going to be a dental assistant, what career would you choose? I think for me would be audio engineer because from probably six years old, I’ve learned to play piano, accordion, and want to go out of here. Nice. Okay. Wow. Something, you played piano? Yeah. So music was always my thing. Wow. So audio engineer was like, nice. So you’re going to do our next podcast, intro, music, and stuff, right? Yeah. When we decide to change it, it’s easy. Nice. Okay. Okay. Good stuff. Roxy, what would you choose as a second career? I think I would be in the beauty industry. Yeah. I do have my esotation license. Okay. I love to work with beauty staff, facials, boxing, all of that. Botox, facial aesthetics, all of that. So more medically. Yeah. What are you doing to do like fillers, like all that sort of stuff? Yeah. And I mean, nursing still in my mind, so. Yeah. Yeah. Right now. I know a lot of people call you guys a dental nurse, which, again, it’s not a dental nurse, dental assistant. Nursing is a different, different type of. I have my esotation license in, honestly, there was a lot of dental assistants in my class. Okay. Okay. Right. You’re right there. You’re comfortable already. Yeah. It’s totally my sense. So let’s say you’re not going to change careers, you’re going to stay in dentistry. You’re both working at a general dentist office, but let’s say you wanted to work with like a dental specialty. Is there any like specialty that either of you would want to work with? I think surgery. Surgery? Surgery? Just because I love extractions. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I love it. What do you like about surgery? Do you go like just? I think it’s just taking something out that’s not healthy. Yeah. Right. And then just fixing it up, fixing the area up, either with an implant or partial or a surgery. It’s so satisfying to have this like really broken down big cavity tooth, big infection. You take it out, you scoop out all the infection, you clean it up, you place some bone, you put some stitches. Look at Roxie’s face. I love surgery. I agree. I’m the same as you, Diego. I love surgery. Surgery is my favorite thing to do. Yeah. I feel like that’s my least favorite. Yeah. I will give high. I will. Here’s the section. Yeah, it’s like, yeah, I know. I know. You know, I don’t want surgery. And that’s fine, right? I feel like I’ve been trauma time. Would you maybe be ortho? I feel like ortho would be a good one. Yeah. Just because there’s a lot of hands on it. Like if you had to do a specialty, right? Yeah. And there’s ortho. I feel like there’s minimal blood. Yeah. I feel like it’s the blood part for me. For sure. Yeah. I feel like it’s the blood part for me. It’s the blood part for me. Yeah. I mean, I feel like it’s a lot of hands on for you. If you’re bleeding when your wires are getting changed, there’s probably something wrong. Yeah. But oral surgery would be my last. OK. OK. So hate oral surgery. Right. What do you like? What’s your most rewarding part of your job? You know, just making my patients feel comfortable. Winning my patients over. Yeah. The ones that come in very fearful. I just had a patient this week. She kind of– she gave us a heads up when she was making her appointment. She called herself a bad patient. Yeah, quote unquote, bad patient. So Dr. Crofts and I were like, well, what kind of bad patient could she be? Is she a bad patient? Or is she just fearful? And when I met her, I won her over. I mean, just trying to figure out why she’s fearful of the dentist. And she just doesn’t like it. She’s had bad experience. Right. And she just has a high anxiety. And so we offered her all the situation options. Yeah. And we offered her nitrous. She was laughing gas. She’s never tried it. And so she needed– she needed a root canal in a crown. And we were able to get her in the next day with that nitrous. And I mean, she was– it was tough for her, but we definitely won her over. So I feel like that’s a rewarding aspect of my job. So just– And I think that it’s so important for you all to be there to help comfort patients and help them be more comfortable because this patient, you know, she was on this patient to close her eyes. Right. So she had her eyes closed, glasses on. I was doing my thing and a couple times, you know, the patient’s like reaching out to hold the– like I was numbing her. She’s holding her– she’s holding her– her hand. I’m doing something. She’s like nervous and just like reaching for a proxy. And a couple times she just would like find her– her leg. And just like put her hand on the leg. And that gave her some comfort. Right? She doesn’t want to touch me. She’s afraid of me. And that’s totally fine. But, you know, she found a lot of comfort in you just being there and just being that comforting presence, you know, like, hey, we’re okay. It’s all good. You’re in good hands. We’re taking good care of you because that’s our ultimate goal, right? Like we want– We want her to come back. Right. We want her to come back because she has other stuff going on. And we want her to have a good experience so that not only she comes back to see us to, you know, help us be busy, but more importantly, and the most important is for her mouth to be healthier because she’s got other stuff going on. And I want to know if the laughing gas helped her. Right. Right. And I was sure to ask her at the end, like, did this helper, like, what– because she did cry in the middle of the appointment. Yep. She did. I mean, she said it was personal. It wasn’t us. Okay. Yeah. So just kind of trying to figure out how we can make her next appointment better. Yep. And she did say the laughing gas is super helpful. Yeah. And she was like, you all were both great. Yeah. You know, you helped me feel comfortable. You know, I want to come back again and see you. Um, and it’s so important. It’s so important because– Makes my day. And it’s, I mean, you want to come back and see me. Right. You’re not for any out of that off-screen. And they don’t want to see me again. Yeah. They want to see y’all off-screen. But I also feel like– Yeah. Rewarding for me is, I feel like we both have that calming presence. Yeah. And so the doctor that you work for might not have that calming presence. And they know that. This is the thing, especially when they have a trauma. And they come into the office and they get received in a different, different way. Yeah. And like changes their aspect of like, oh, I’m going to the death all in a, like– Like we’re not judging that. Right. We’re not like you. It’s totally understandable why you have this anxiety. We’re not judging you. Yeah. There’s no judgment in our office. We’re here to help you. Yeah. And we get it. I hate being in the chair. These two hate being in the chair. I hate– It’s not fun. Yeah. Right. I get it. I get it. It’s worse than any of us. He’s a little baby-backed. I’ve told you all this before. Yeah. But, like in the morning, for people to know that we both have worked with Dennis that don’t have that patient. Right. They’re in, they want to anesthetize you as quickly as possible. And then also sharing your experience, like, for example, with me, like anytime I have a patient coming in for an implant scan and an implant, an implant C, I let them know is like, oh, I’ve had an implant scan. You’ve done it. You’ve been there. Yeah. Right. I’ll let you know, like, you know your tongue is going to be going crazy right now because it’s not used to having an implant. You feel in a whole new thing, right? Yeah, but you can relate. You’re giving them, yeah, exactly. Giving them, like, my experience. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah. Because what we do is not fun. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah. But you guys doing it, it’s just, it’s so much better. And it’s, you all help keep people so much more comfortable. And it’s so important. I’m trying nitrous. I don’t like nitrous. But if my patient’s like nitrous, I’m going to support that. Yeah, sure. It’s different for everyone. It’s not. It’s not. And some people just want local. And that’s fine. Some people want to not be numb at all. And I just, it’s fine. You want to dance? Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. Did you want to wear your head? No. Just a couple more questions that we had for y’all. What is something that you wish patients understood more about their mouth? I wish patients knew the importance of flossing because a lot of patients try to get away with the floss picks. And those are great. But honestly, like, you’re putting that bacteria back into your mouth if you’re not changing the area that you’re flossing with, I guess. So traditional floss is always going to be the best floss. It is. It is. It patients come in with cavities in their proximal in between your teeth and they don’t understand why. Right. And so we want to floss the teeth that we want to keep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Love it. Love it. Yeah. Patients really want to know the, I mean, the pros and cons of the water flossers these days. Yeah. So how do you feel about the water flossers? Yeah. Oh, my doctor, Mike, and I have gone back and forth on this. Already once or twice. I wouldn’t know if it was. I think they’re pretty damn good. Dr. Mike thinks they’re not worth anything. Traditional floss. I mean, and I will say, I will say, string floss, 100% better. It’s better. But I say whatever you’re going to floss with more. So if you know yourself and you’re like, I hate grabbing that thing out and flossing, I’m not going to do it. But the water, I’ll shoot that stuff in there and it’s fine. Do that. Do whatever you’re going to do more. Yeah. String floss is better. Yes. String floss better. So floss those teeth. Get in there, hug them. Yep. It’s like, it’s a hug them. How did the phone in front, hug the one in back, did it do it? I always see it as, okay, you’re going to, you’re going to brush your teeth. Yeah. You’re going to take a shower. You’re never going to brush your, are you going to brush your armpits? Right. It’s the same thing. Good point. Good point. You’re going to do the arm. That’s it. You’re going to arm like the side of it. But you ain’t going to hit the distinct. You can. Yeah. Right. And another thing with, I don’t know if it’s today or what, but the sparkling water is to become a big thing. Yeah. It is. The acidity in that type of water, I mean, it’s not great for your teeth, but I think patients don’t realize how bad acidity is for your teeth. Yeah. So, I mean, patient. I’m guilty of that, like, I hate water. So I always go for something. It’s got some carbonation. Yeah. It’s got like something. But in reality, it’s not doing any good for you. Right. Or, you know, the rest of your calorie intake, all the things, right? But you want to talk about one more thing. What’s your last thing? The charcoal tooth thing. The charcoal tooth phase. I would love it. I actually just got a message, a DM about this. Like, what whitening options do you recommend? I literally just had this yesterday. So yeah. So, the charcoal is a whitening toothpaste, right? It seems like Dr. Moody is a big fan. He said he’s not for anyone who can’t hear him. What do you think of it, Roxy Diego? I disagree. You know what? Perd mixed. Yeah. Mixed things. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure. I hear it is abrasive. So abrasive. It’s so abrasive. Okay. So charcoal, right? It’s like a rock. Basically, just take a rock and just scrape your tooth and take some a mammal away. And that’s what charcoal is doing. So it’s super abrasive. It’s super aggressive. The most abrasive, you know, whitening option that I recommend is going to be like the armen hammer with baking soda. That’s about as abrasive as I want to be. And abrasive, what that means is that you’re like rubbing shit away. And so if you’re doing really abrasive stuff on your teeth, you’re kind of chalking into that anamol. And especially if you’re using like a hard brush and scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, you’re taking an amole. Okay. Talking about abrasiveness, the night guards and the retainers. Mm-hmm. Patients always ask how to care for their night guards and the retainers. Yeah. And they don’t understand why they can’t use toothpicks. Right. But they don’t know that toothpicks is abrasive as well. It’s true. It has little particles in it that are super abrasive, super aggressive. I give y’all 100% of those instructions. So why don’t you like tell someone how to take care of their night guard? I say warm water was soap. That’s usually what I say to them. Warm water was soap. Yeah. So pour a grab your toothbrush, clean up all this. Yeah. But not with no toothpaste. Yeah, no toothpaste. It is abrasive in an amole. Soapy water. Like micro tears in your night guard. And patients wonder why it’s collecting stain, bacteria over time. We had one recently where she was like brushing it aggressively with a hard brush. And she brought this night guard to us in Samantha or her. Dennis was like, I don’t want to touch that thing because it was thick black mold on the entire inside. And this patient had been wearing it for months like this. They’re putting black mold in their mouth because they’re scrubbing it with a hard brush. Yeah. Don’t do that. Warm soapy water. My retainers, I don’t even brush. Yeah. I just rinse them off. Yeah. And I just like rub my fingers on it. Clean hands, rub my fingers. That’s all you got to do. Don’t brush it. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think. And there’s so many things in dentistry that like people aren’t aware of. And so like seeing a dentist, seeing an assistant that the two of you I’m super impressed with, by the way, you all are super great assistants and just like so informed, so educational for our patients, so helpful to help ease their anxiety, help them be more comfortable for when I walk in the room because they’re going to be scared. I’m such a scary guy, I know. So they’re going to be terrified of me. So the two of you all are making it better, right? And so I just want to kind of end this podcast with saying truly, truly appreciate the two of you all. We have some great team members. I wish I could interview them all because they’re all amazing and all have unique perspectives on dentistry. I know. I know. Okay. Last question. What advice would you give to someone who’s considering a career in dentistry? Juan Diego Celeste. I think there’s a lot of opportunity in the dental. You can either be a dental assistant, hygienist, or even go as for dentists. And from dentists you can stem off into oral surgery, right, right? Right, right. Right, right. Right, right. Yes, it’s rewarding. I feel like it’s very rewarding. Yeah. I mean, you had to be a people person. Yeah, yeah, no bad days, but we all have bad days. We all have bad days, but you can’t show that patient is having a bad day because they’re there getting something done. So you’re not adding your bad attitude onto their bad. We have great job security. Yeah. I mean, I don’t think that’s true. That’s true. AI is going to take us over. Yeah, true, true. Yeah. We can’t work from home, you guys. And it’s never too late. It’s never too late to be a job. You’re a dentist, a dental assistant, a hygienist, right? Like, you’re a stepdad went to school really late, right? Yeah, you guys are going to have 40. 40. Very accessible. Wow. Yeah. And he’s doing great. I mean, I’ve not met him. I’ve met him since the health of dentists. Yeah. I’ve met him a lot of dentists. Yeah. Right. Yes. Yeah. The field’s there and anyone who’s in dentistry is there, you know, for their patient’s benefit. And our end goal is always going to be the same, right? Mental offices do things a little bit differently, a little bit unique, but our end goal is always the same to help you as the patient. And I could not do what I do without these guys. So, appreciate y’all. Yeah. And again, not only thank you for my day today, but thank you for being here. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll see y’all next time. Bye. Thank you for listening to today’s episode of DM a Dentist brought to you by Doe Sipdental. And thank you for your interest in improving your oral health. If you’d like your questions answered by Dr. Rusty and Dr. Mike, visit us at doeSipdental.com or DM us on Instagram @YourDailyDoseOpDental. [MUSIC]