A Patient Experience

A patient experience that stands out as significant is the day I had an exchanged patient from a different country. This patient came in because part of her tooth fell out. When she pointed to the tooth, I saw she had a huge carious lesion. I told her to get a dental exam so the dentist can diagnose the suspicious disease. She refused to get a dental exam because the dentist was not going to fix her tooth that same day. I told her about Open Door and she agreed to a call them. During that visit, she told me that if she had a cleaning, was the “yellow stuff” going to come off her teeth. I explained to her that the yellowish hard deposits would be removed with the cleaning, but that she needed to get a dental exam because she had more suspicious areas. That same day, I did a prophylaxis on her and once I was done, I gave her the mirror and showed her were the yellowish hard deposits were once at.
She didn’t pay much attention to that area; instead she told me that her mandibular occlusal areas are still kind of yellow.
I told her that as a hygienist, I am not trained to remove that suspicious area, that’s the dentist job. She wasn’t that happy. A week later she messaged me saying that she wanted another cleaning because she wasn’t satisfied with the cleaning she had a few days ago. She told me she was still seeing the yellowish stains on top of her teeth. I explained to her that she didn’t need another cleaning because I had removed all the hard deposits from her teeth. Like before, I explained to her that she needed to get a dental exam to get those suspicious areas looked at. This patient stands out as significant because I learned a lot from her. I noticed that it is hard for people to understand the difference between the role of a hygienist and the role of a dentist. Also, I learned that not everyone can easily be educated about oral hygiene it takes patience and
time.