#14 Who's Who in the Dental Office - Dental Hygienist Edition

Dental offices are made up of a lot of different team members. We dove into some of the roles in a couple previous episodes, but today we are talking all things dental hygienist. What do dental hygienists do and how do they operate within a dental practice? Let’s dive in.

SIDE NOTED: We are not only rounding off this segment of “who’s who in the dental office”, but we are also rounding off season 1! We have enjoyed having you all on this journey and can’t wait to see you in season 2! We will still be active on all our socials so drop us a line. Don’t be a stranger!

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As always, feel free to reach out through our instagram @YourDailyDoseOfDental or through our website http://www.DoseOfDental.com. We would love to hear from you and hope your questions can be featured on our show!

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Website: https://doseofdental.com/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dmadentist  

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Transcript:

Well, well, welcome back to another episode. I’m Dr. Mike. – And I’m Dr. Rusty. – And we’re two general dentists practicing in Portland, Oregon. – Welcome back to our podcast, DM a dentist. – In today’s episode, we’re talking about our final team member in the who’s who in the dental office. This is part three, and we’re talking about the dental hygienist. – The hygienist? You mean the cornerstone of the dental office? – You mean the boss? – Yeah, basically the boss. – They’re kind of in charge, it seems like. – The boss, sometimes, you know. – My boss, day to day. – We love our hygienists, but you know. – Yeah, but they run the place. – They do. – Yeah, in a lot of ways, they do keep the office running. And keep a lot of things. – Absolutely. – Systems running, recall patients coming through. I mean, hygienist is important. – I mean, does your hygienist or does your hygienist? Does your patients say, “Hey, I wanna see you” or they wanna see the hygienist? – Oh, for sure. They request a hygienist. They build a relationship with them. You know, the hygienist is like the bread and butter of the practice. It’s bringing people through to get exams. And I mean, they’re coming back to see the hygienist though. They build a relationship with them. They’re not coming to see me. – No, they wanna see Vonda, or Sam, or Angela. Any of you all that are amazing. – Yeah. – But when they’re in their chair, they’re happy. They’re getting their teeth clean, things are good. When they’re in my chair, it’s ’cause they need something more. So typically, patients are just happier, I think, when they’re coming for a hygiene visit. ‘Cause they’re– – Yeah, it’s like a real spa day. – Yeah, it’s basically– – Yeah, it’s a treatment. Yeah. – Something crazy. – But what is a role of a hygienist? I mean, you know, we talked a little bit about some of the roles. What are they called? – Dental nurses. – Dental nurse. – Yeah, so are dental nurses? – As you all know, they’re not dental nurses. – Yeah, if you listened to our early episodes, no one in the dental office is called a nurse. So y’all better know that if not go back in with then I think it was the assistant– – Listen to a different one. – Yeah. – These are what we’re talking today about dental hygienist, not dental nurses. So yeah, what are they? – The hygienists, they’re really involved. So they’re providers of the office too, right? They’re licensed in a similar way to the dentist or license. By the state, they have to go to a lot of school, a lot of training. So they’re super involved in oral health, in treating oral disease, and a lot more ways than just cleaning your mouth. They have a few kind of main functions I would say. As a dental hygienist, your number one is they’re gonna be providing hygiene, aka cleaning your teeth. The other thing they’re gonna be doing a big part is education, you know, oral hygiene instructions, education, types of toothbrush, water picks, different, you know, maltherinces and things that are gonna be really helpful. So aka teaching you how to clean your teeth. And then the other thing they’re gonna do, we kind of lump this one together is providing, you know, more information or applying medications, you know, things like different toothpaste, maltherinces, you know, they’re seeing, you know, maybe fungal or viral infections that they can spot and have us, have us, you know, prescribed medication for. So that’s another kind of big role for them. – Yeah, no, I love that you described it that way. I mean, your dental hygienist are involved in your overall oral care more than you think, right? Like patients often mention, oh, just here for a cleaning, just, we hear that a lot, like just a cleaning, but no, their primary focus is the dental hygienist is improving your oral health and that is through different types of cleanings or what you said, like application of medications, things like that, but their roles and responsibilities are more an extend far beyond just cleaning teeth. Wouldn’t you say that? – Absolutely, yeah. – They have a lot more duties of just cleaning teeth. I mean, sometimes they have a quote unquote, you know, simple cleaning where it’s someone who is really exceptional home care, you know, they’ve been educated on how to clean their teeth and keep it clean. – Like a rusty cane to get it cleaning. – Sometimes it’s quote unquote just a cleaning because there’s not so much going on, not a lot of disease, right? ‘Cause a lot of patients are great, but a lot of times there’s a lot of buildup, a lot of areas are missing stuff, infections, things that patients aren’t even aware of, that hygienist can see in spot. So, you know, at our school, I don’t know if it was, like this at VCU, I assume maybe similar, but like we took a lot of classes with our hygienist, you know, like some of the anatomy and some of those basic dental terminology and stuff like that was with some of the hygiene class. – Yeah, we had a lot of dental hygienist and with the dental students learning like oral path, then all anatomy, radiology. I mean, we were like cohorts in that class. – Right. – Which is great. – So we have the same backbone in terms of didactic knowledge. – For sure. – So yeah, we would consider the dentist and the hygienist as providers in the office. – Right, yeah. – Totally, totally. I mean, and a lot of times, you know, like, it’s very state by state, but some states, you can have like indirect supervision of hygienists to where a dentist doesn’t even have to actually be in the building for a hygienist to be there working because their providers, their license, their educated, their trained in CPR and basic life support. Like, they’re fully capable of providing care. They have to have an exam. – In a lot of states, I want you to need me, but you don’t really need, you know, the rest of you. (laughing) – They need us. They need us, they need us. – They need us, they need us. Well, they need us, you know, we need them. I think it’s a working relationship. – It is, right. – We can’t do it. They do, we can’t do it without us and vice versa. – Yeah, no, agreed. You know, and like you said, they’re trained in all the classes too, right, they’re taking oral pathology and anatomy and all that stuff too. So, they’re not just in their cleaning your teeth, they’re doing oral cancer screenings and looking for those same lumps and bumps we look for. – Yeah. – And a lot of times, they’re in there for so much longer than I am for an exam, they’re seeing stuff that’s really small and just starting, so. – Yeah, I mean, so when your hygienist is in their cleaning your teeth, they’re looking for all these things and trying to address other health concerns. So, they’re doing an exam not only inside the mouth but also outside the mouth, extra-orally. They’re looking for things that shouldn’t be there. Gross, they’ll refer you to a dermatologist. I mean, they’ll talk to a breastly and I first, but they’ll know to refer you to a dermatologist and we will ultimately make that decision, but they know what they’re doing. – Right, for sure. – Which is right. – And not only just the soft stuff, the lumps and bumps and whatever else, but they’re also looking at the teeth for cavities, gum disease, all that, obviously. – I mean, your hygienist brings it up to you all the time, didn’t they? – For sure. – Yeah. – Yeah, they’re very good about that. – Cavity on number two. – Yeah. – And not only do they bring it up to me, they can kind of start that discussion with the patient as well. You know, hygienists can’t technically diagnose like a cavity, for example, that has to be per organ state law. A dentist who diagnosis that, but they’ve looked a lot of x-rays. I promise you if my hygienist is looking at your teeth, she can tell if you have a cavity. – Yeah. – Especially if she’s got an x-ray to look at. – But you’ll let you tell them. – But not necessarily. I mean, a lot of times they’re gonna tell the patients, like, hey, you know, I’m seeing this on some x-rays, I’m seeing this when I’m looking at your teeth, looking like, you know, this might be what’s going on here. Doctor may recommend this for you. So they can kind of start that process. And that’s something that I think is super valuable for hygienists. It’s called what we, it’s co-diagnosis, right? – Oh, yeah. – So they’re looking at stuff, we’re looking at stuff. Before I go in for an exam, I talk with my hygienist. We look through the x-rays together, we’re looking through scans, we’re looking through everything and we’re talking about it. We’re seeing stuff, I’m seeing stuff, they’re seeing stuff, we’re seeing the same stuff, different stuff. Yeah, we’re talking about what’s going on, what the patient’s concerns are, what they may or may not have talked to the patient about. Hygenists have different levels of comfort talking with patients about stuff too, based on their experience. So some of our hygienists are really great about, hey, this is looking like this is gonna need a filling, this is maybe gonna need a crown here and kind of starting that conversation, which makes it easier when I come in the room and makes it just more efficient and helps the patient own the problem if there’s a lot of people seeing the same thing. Yeah, I feel like the aspect you mentioned, co-diagnosis, right? Someone brings it up, someone else brings it up, it kind of makes it, it gives it more impact, right? Like it’s not just me walking and saying, hey, I’m meeting you maybe the first time or just I’m in there for five minutes. Your hygienist is there for 60 minutes at least, or sometimes more. But yeah, they spend more time in your mouth, they notice what’s going on, they can bring these up to you and then the hygienist and us, we work together to come up with a treatment plan that is beneficial to your oral health, right? And we all know that oral health is systemic health, it’s all connected. So it’s something that’s very important. So yeah, co-diagnosis is very important, we love our hygienist. So. And we’re all looking at like the gums and the teeth, I would say just as like a general perspective, maybe hygienists focus a little bit more on gum health while we’re focused on, you know, tooth health and rebuilding teeth. Obviously it’s all cohesive unit, you can’t have gums without teeth, you know, vice versa. So like piggyback of that, what would you say is like a specific job responsibility of a hygienist? Like what, what do they do? Like if someone didn’t know what a hygienist was, what do they do? So yeah, dental hygienist, I mean number one, and the most obvious thing is they’re just the champions of oral health and oral hygiene. So they do, you know, cleaning of teeth, is the number one job and responsibility that they do have their hygienists or their responsible for dental hygiene. So they do this through gum exams, you know, the measurements when they go around, three, two, three, three, two, three, measuring everywhere, cleaning your teeth and scraping the plaque and tartar off to make your gums and teeth healthier. – Yeah, and if your gums aren’t healthy, hygienists are able to diagnose with us or independently of what’s going on with your gums. So periodontal disease, gender vitis, what you’ve talked about in previous things, and provide cleanings that are necessary for what you’ve been diagnosed with. So we get that a lot where it’s like, do I need a deep cleaning or regular cleaning? Hi, hygienists can help you figure that out. And then if you need a deep cleaning, they can help numb you, make sure you’re comfortable. There’s a lot of things they’re capable of doing. But yeah, they can deal with a lot of that. – Yeah, providing local anesthetic is one job, responsibility or ability hygienists have, maybe a lot of people don’t, you know? – Yeah, that’s true. – Right, even for us, like our procedures. – Right, yeah, so a lot of times, you know, like if I’m, my schedule is tied, and hygienist has a moment free, sometimes they’ll numb my next patient for me and add some anesthetic and get them numb for me, which is great. – It’s awesome. – And, you know, for people that have had a quote unquote regular cleaning, not a deeper cleaning, like they may have not been numb for a cleaning before, but sometimes there are, you know, gum disease that gets away from people where you need to be numb for that cleaning, and hygienists obviously can do that. So treating gum disease is so important, you know, not just for your oral health, but for everything systemically. Like gum disease contributes to your risk of heart attack, your risk of stroke, your risk of, you know, Alzheimer’s dementia, cognitive decline. There’s so much that inflammation in your mouth goes to the rest of your body, and hygienists, you know, help reduce inflammation a lot. – Oh, yeah. And as we know, from a lot of things coming out, like you just don’t want generalized inflammation in your body, right? Even if it’s in your mouth, but you just inflammatory processes are a sign of disease. You don’t want that going on. So they help with that. And apart from cleaning teeth, I mean, they do many other things, like they help, you know, gum disease obviously. They’re also involved in things around the office, like they take x-rays, they’re certified in that. They do local anesthetic, which you talked about. They co-diagnose with us, which is awesome. They flip rooms, they run sterile, they educate patients, but I even have a hygienist I work with, Kristen, this is a plug for you. She’s a restorative hygienist. And that is amazing. – So what is a restorative hygienist? – So she did extra training. So I will prep teeth, right? Prepare them for a filling, remove the cavity, make sure everything’s on sound to structure. And she’s been trained in a way where she can go in and restore the tooth with composite fillings, and then polish it and then I come back and check it. – So basically you do all the drilling, get the cavity cleaned up, and then Kristen comes in and places the filling, you just come to a final check. – Yeah, so I remove the decay process, but she’s learned and done all these classes to know how to do all that. Which is cool. So hygienist, I think like dental rolls, like we’re expanding, but it’s nice to see these auxiliary rolls expand. – Yeah, for sure. Especially if you think about areas that need, like there’s no dentist. Hygienists are capable of doing a lot of things. – And some hygienists really are passionate about expanding their rolls and doing that some aren’t. Everyone’s unique. Dentists, some dentists want to really grow in this field, but not the other way. Hygienists are gonna be unique that way too, right? So we’re gonna really wanna focus on gum hygiene and health there, and not so much on filling placement and maybe they’ll take different torps of continuing education based on what their interests are. But that option’s there, and I mean, hygiene is just so important to like the overall heartbeat of the office, the flow of the office. Like many of our new patients are seen by hygienists first. They come in that hygiene is meeting them, greeting them, bringing them to the back, taking their extra rays, you know, doing the gum evaluation, giving them a cleaning, going through stuff they’re seeing, then the hygienists come and talk to me. And then I finally meet the patient and confirm what they’ve been doing for the last hour. – So they’ve burned their own patients’ trust? – Exactly. And then a lot of times, you know, they’ve built a good relationship, you know, so and so she’s been so amazing, made this easy, it’s been the best cleaning ever. You know, they told me there might be some stuff going on, so see what you think, you know. And it makes it, makes it a lot easier. So they spend a lot of time with patients and grow that, like you said, that trust, and they’ll start to build a little rapport with that patient, so. – Yeah, it’s so helpful. – I mean, it’s hard, as you can imagine, being a new patient in an office, you don’t know anyone, the trust is not there. And I think hygienists, just, they care a lot about dentistry. Not that we don’t care. But they care a lot. And they can really show that to a patient. I think that’s, I mean, every hygienist I’ve met, it’s just, it’s amazing. – Yeah. – Yeah, yeah, they’ve been great. So, I mean, all the hygienists out there, especially the ones that are offices. – We appreciate it. – We appreciate what y’all love you guys. (laughing) And, you know, education, I would say education is maybe, one of the most important factors of cleaning teeth, because, you know, it’s like, give a man a fish, or leave for a day, teach him and a fish, and he’ll leave for the rest of his life. – And he’ll keep his teeth. – He’ll keep his teeth, you know. Clean a man’s teeth, he’s good, till he goes and starts eating again. Teach him and a clean his teeth. – Yeah, I’m gonna go and get a lot of teeth forever. – ‘Cause it, I mean, before I started in dentistry, I didn’t realize that so many people didn’t know the property of cleaning their teeth. – Right. – And I think that’s so important. Like, if you’re not taught, you don’t know. – Right, and if it’s not, like, if your parents didn’t learn and passed on, good habits to you, – How would you know? – Maybe you never learned. And so, coming to an office where hygienist cares and can show you, hey, look, you’re missing right here. You’re doing a good job here and here, but you’re not getting this part here, focus on this. This is how you do that. This is the better way to floss, you know, do this type or that. – Kavya, I had a patient in dental school that did not know the property of brush is teeth and he moved his toothbrush up and down but did not move beyond, like, any change in direction, didn’t get the gum, nothing. He went up and down. So, like, he’s like, no one ever told me, this man was 75. – Right. – Yeah, education, it starts from the dental home and Rusty, we see kids, hopefully, when they’re one years old, establish the care, we establish the patient, meet the hygienist and then hopefully we have this little community and we educate and go from there. – And education, like you said, it’s such an important aspect, you know, for everyone’s health, we’re super passionate about it, the hygienist we work with, they’re super passionate about it, our assistants, our front desk, you know, everyone’s trying to educate you on what they know, right? So, front desk, we’re gonna educate you on your insurance. Us and hygienists are gonna educate you on your teeth, the assistants, same thing, they’re gonna be educating you on what the procedures like, what you’re going through that day, whatever it is. And, you know, the educational aspect is the huge reason that we created this podcast was to help educate you all, and help you, you know, learn a little bit about the way that two random dentists think. (laughing) – I mean, ’cause you wouldn’t know, right? You don’t know how dentists think, right? So, I mean, speaking of the podcast, right? We’ve been starting to move into our new studio space, I know we mentioned it last time, but yeah, we’re building out a new studio space, we’re excited about it. And, during this transition, we’re gonna take a little bit of a break, so we’ll probably end up seeing you when do you think, New Year? – Probably New Year, probably in the New Year. – In the New Year, we’re– – January 25, but we’ve got a lot of work left to do. – Yeah, so this will be the last podcast from this studio space, which is wild, so. – It’s sad to think about saying goodbye, but. – I know. – Here it’s been functional, it’ll be good. – Yeah. – We’re excited for some change, we’re excited for a little bigger space and a little bit on the room. – Designer on space. – And have, yeah, some freedom in the design and how things are, so. I expect to hear from us in a few months, in the New Year and in new space. – Yeah, we’re excited. And, during our break between season one, which is now, right, last episode, in season two of our podcast, we’ll still be on active on all of our socials, we’ll answer your questions, compiling your DMs, writing blogs, so yeah, keep out, and keep messaging us, we’ll hopefully you’ll be featured on season two. – Yeah, for sure. And then again, if you wanna find us on socials, if you’re not following us already, please do so. Our TikTok is, same name is the podcast, so on TikTok, we are DM a dentist. – Yep. – On Instagram, we’re under your daily dose of dental. So please reach out to us on there, send us DMs, send us weird videos, you see articles, you read. – Okay, I’m not weird. – We wanna help you a deep bunk stuff, we wanna, you know, tooth related, mouth related, oral disease related, please, not anything. – Mouth related. There’s a lot of weird stuff on TikTok, okay? Be careful what you’re sending us. – You know, some stuff we see is not mouth related. We are speaking to mouth only. – Mouth related, please. – Thank you. – Mouth related, tooth related, dentistry related. – So yeah, we’re passionate about this, we love it, we love hearing from you, so yeah, thanks for tagging along, and hopefully we’ll see you, I mean, we will see you, you’re not gonna leave us. We’ll see you in season two. – We’ll see you in season two. – Have a good rest of your year. – Bye. – Bye.