Efficient. Meticulous. Client-centered.
As a fourth year student and soon to be alumni, I hold a lot of pride and respect for the program. Looking back on the past four years, it is incredible to reflect on how far I’ve come in regards to my character, confidence and passion for oral health. Thus, it only comes natural to me to grasp every opportunity available to mentor younger students and advocate for the program.
Imagine Day 2014 Orientation Leader
Student Panel at the DHDP Open House 2015
Imagine Day 2015
This past academic year, I was nominated to be a part of the Dental Undergraduate Society (DUS) as their Dental Hygiene Degree Program (DHDP) fourth year sponsorship representative. Part of my duties as a sponsorship representative was to arrange lunch and learn sessions for my colleagues and acquire sponsorship for our community initiatives throughout the year. Informational sessions helped my colleagues and I acquire knowledge about the latest oral health products and assisted us in making informed decisions in our clinical practice and recommendations to our clients. Furthermore, it gave us the opportunity to network with those already in the dental industry and understand the business aspect of this field.
Throughout the year, I managed to coordinate numerous events for an audience of 80 to 100 students with various dental product representatives such as Oral B, GUM Sunstar, P&G, Sonic Care and WaterPik. This position has allowed me to build and maintain networks with established professionals in the dental industry.
During the Pacific Dental Conference, I had the opportunity to catch up with each of the representatives to thank and appreciate them for taking the time to visit UBC to present on their products.
T
he holiday season is often times associated with building a lifetime of memories with friends and family, and to all gather in celebration of another year. However, for Sonia and I, our holidays were spent away from loved ones on the other side of the world, and for justifiable reasons.
From educating children and health professionals about oral health, to providing clinical therapy, and conducting oral cancer screenings, this initiative gave me the opportunity to exercise all aspects of the dental hygiene scope of practice. A moment that stands out, one that I often revisit, is walking through the overcrowded and non-air-cond
itioned Oncology Hospital, seeing beds occupied by two to three patients who are battling advanced stage cancer with tumours the size of a grapefruit. This moment of enlightenment truly provided realization that although dental hygienists are not involved with treating such serious conditions, they play a significant role in the early identification of such complex and fatal oral conditions.
I went into this initiative thinking that coming from North America where resources are abundant and the quality of life is high in comparison to developing countries, I would be able to give back and share the wealth of knowledge I have obtained from my undergraduate program; however, now I feel that I have gained more than I could have ever given. Although the health professionals we were highly educated, they were humble in their knowledge and gave us outstanding respect as we conducted educational sessions. Furthermore, even though oral health professionals working in the university and hospital receive very little salary (~$150USD/month), they worked tirelessly to raise up a new generation professionals and develop a caring relationship with their patients ensuring to deliver the highest quality of care. After a day of work at the university or hospitals, they will work in a private practice until late at night just to make enough money to survive. Seeing them pursue their passion and devote all their energy to their career without any restraints encouraged me to look past the money aspect in my career and strive to make a difference in my community and facilitate the advancement of my profession.
While I continued to develop a deeper appreciation for this profession and explored different practice settings in Vietnam day after day, it has further reaffirmed the significance of my role as an emerging licensed dental professional. I have left Vietnam even more passionate to advocate for preventative services to reduce the prevalence of oral diseases, increased access to healthcare services, and increase awareness.
Debates have been used as an instructional and education tool in dental programs as it empowers participants to critically think on their feet, advocate for the implementation of health policies and bring about understanding to controversial subjects such as water fluoridation.1 Debates are ideal platforms for dental hygienists to create awareness of the profession and demonstrate their expertise and knowledge, which is substantiated by scientific research.
In 2014, I participated in the annual fluoride debate where my class was divided into three teams: pro-fluoridation, anti-fluoridation and critical colleagues. I was chosen to be on the critical colleagues team, which was in charge of marketing the debate to enhance attendance, moderating, time keeping and generate challenging questions for the two teams from the perspective of the general public. Although I knew the benefits of water fluoridation was well supported in literature, I had to remain neutral and speak from the public’s perspective. In the process of preparing for the debate, I honed my critical thinking, scientific investigation and research use competencies through examining the current literature regarding the risk and benefits of fluoridation and developing questions for both teams.
Although all the team members on the anti-fluoridation team believed in the efficacy of fluoridation, they won the debate due to their superior abilities in reasoning. The debate revealed the importance of understanding the risks and the benefits of the products and services that I recommend to my clients to ensure I am providing unbiased and objective information. Furthermore, it reinforced the importance of using literature to ground my clinical practice.
Mental illness is becoming increasing prevalent in Canada as statistics reveal that in any given year one in five Canadians experiences a mental health problem.1 Additionally, literature shows that people are more likely to visit their oral healthcare providers on a regular basis than their other primary healthcare providers.2 It is reported that adults aged 20-44 rarely visit their family doctors for preventive care, yet they visit their oral healthcare professionals at least once a year.2 Therefore, understanding this population`s barriers to oral health care can help clinicians managed this population and treat them with dignity they deserve. In addition to providing clinical services, my team and I held a table clinic to educate the population about the difference between healthy and unhealthy gums and showed them how to care for their oral health daily. The goal of the table clinic was to encourage the population to equip them with the basic knowledge and skills to care for their oral health daily.
Pioneer Community Living Association (PCLA) challenged me in the area of professionalism and client management as I provided treatment to a population living with multiple mental illnesses. I learned the importance of not labeling the residents by their condition, but instead understanding that they are people living with a chronic condition. During the meeting with the care manager of the facility, she stated that the residents “have enough
difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, more so caring for their oral health”. Keeping this in mind and having mindset of empathy, allowed me to understand the justification behind the poor oral health state of some of the residents. My community rotation at PCLA has equipped me with the skills to successfully create andmanage a community oral health program as my team and I were responsible for managing all aspects of the program including: assessing and diagnosing the needs of the population, developing a plan that catered to the needs, manage inventory of supplies, implement the plan, and evaluated the population.
Every dental professional is responsible for their client’s chart as it is a legal representation of dental services provided.1 Documenting all procedures, client communication and clinical findings ensure the clinician accountability to the government, insurance company and client.1 Additionally, effective documentation can protect the clinician if the chart is called upon as evidence during a legal dispute.1
The importance of documentation was reinforced during a clinical session when a client that presented with numerous dental complications refused to receive local anaesthetic (LA) on numerous occasions. After many attempts to help her understand the benefits and few risks of LA, she insisted that I proceed with scaling without LA. Respecting her wishes, I proceeded to document the discussion with my client – first, to protect myself should a dispute occur; second, to ensure future clinicians are informed of this situation. The client was referred to the DMD program; however, she had a history of refusing treatment when she was contacted and was permanently banned from the program. During her recall appointment, she was upset that she had not received a call from a DMD and insisted on speaking with the clinical coordinator. After a long discussion involving the clinical coordinator and a look through the communication history, it was clear that the client had been deferring dental treatment due to fear of needles. Although the client claimed that she had not been contacted and that such events did not occur, it was documented in the system. Due to the unreliability of the client, we could not initiate another referral to the DMD program and had to dismiss the client from the DHDP program due the risk of possible allegations of supervised neglect.
Supervised neglect is defined as a case in which a “regularly examined patient shows signs of a disease or condition but is not informed of its presence or progress”. In our case, although we informed the client about her disease status and the importance of receiving treatment, she consistently refused treatment and would deny that the clinic’s attempt to contact her for dental treatment. This experience helped me truly appreciate the detailed documentation that we are taught throughout our clinical experience. Although documentation can be time consuming and tedious, documentation of client procedures, communication and clinical findings will prevail, especially in situations where the client is making allegations against the clinic or clinician.