Category Archives: 2. Disease Prevention Activities Initiatives and Programs

Under One Umbrella

Throughout my years in UBC, table clinics had been a common procedure to promote oral health. However, I never attended one till today! Before this event, I did not really know what to expect. I had questions such as, will people be even interested in oral health? Will they just come to the table just to get toothbrushes and toothpastes? Will our booth be appealing enough to attract people? I had no clue.

Target population for the event, “Under One Umbrella” were those struggling financially. After this event, all my questions I had before were answered. Though this population had priorities to get life security it was my surprise that their oral health has been part of their top priorities as well.

I realized this further supports how dental hygienists are as primary care providers, and I hope that with the UBC Dental Hygiene program and other dental hygiene institutes and organizations will further spread awareness that dental hygienists are the next big thing!

Richmond General Hospital: Volunteering Opportunity

Common areas in which dental hygienists work after graduation include private practices and in public health organizations. (1) Community rotations in school had only been my exposure of working in a public health aspect. However, I had the privilege to be one of the chosen volunteers to come to the Richmond General Hospital with the collaboration of The Dental Mission Project. This was a good experience for me because I got to experience providing Dental Hygiene services in a hospital. Generally, the population was a wide range from children to adults. Clinical therapy included intra and extra oral examinations, quick perio and dental exams (spot probing), and debridement.

To my surprise, adapting to this sudden fast paced environment was not so much of a challenge because I enjoyed it so much. I learnt how to set up the foldable dental chairs and used other resources that could be helpful such as chairs in the room, the whiteboard and tables. I enjoyed communicating and collaborating with the staff from the Dental Mission Project, as well as expanding my network with the other dental hygiene and dental students.

A challenge I had faced was that there was a patient who could not speak nor understand English. Providing personal self care was difficult without a translator, and I realized that creativity comes into play. What I did to solve this issue was using the whiteboard and I drew out for the technique of C-shape flossing – and after demonstrating and showing the drawings on the whiteboard, the patient was able to successfully achieve the C-shape flossing technique on their teeth.

Overall, this experience working in the hospital had become one of my definite places of working as a dental hygienist in the future.

Prepping instruments and barriers before clients come into the room with other chosen volunteers, under supervision from The Dental Mission Project.

Where DH services are held.

Looking over the schedule for the day.

References:

Singer J, Cohen L, LaBelle A. Dental hygienists in nontraditional settings: practice and patient characteristics. J Public Health Dent 1986 [cited 2017 Mar 16]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3457952

Implementation at Broadway Pentecostal Lodge

Throughout the years of being a dental hygiene student, I had been exposed to different types of populations. Besides doing dental hygiene services in clinic, another role as a dental hygienist is to educate individuals depending on their oral health needs through health promotion. During my fourth year, I had the opportunity to educate nurses and care aids about the linkage between aspiration pneumonia and oral health in the geriatric population at Broadway Pentecostal Lodge.

We made a poster and brochure with information about what aspiration pneumonia was and how it links to oral health, and what the nurses and care aids can do to prevent this from happening to the elders in BPL.

Some of the nurses and care aids did not know that oral health is another causal factor that can lead to aspiration pneumonia, as one of the nurses were surprised how oral health can affect general health.

Me and my classmate with our poster & brochures! Credits: Emily Choi