Dental Hygienist Reflection

This week in Dr. Caseys office I mainly cleaned up after the patient left. I learned about how to clean up after they do a sealant. I found that really exciting because whenever they do a sealant I can clean everything up and won't have to wait for somebody else to do it for me. I actually really like cleaning up, even though my gloves have had rips in them a couple times so I end up touching the bloody tools by accident, which I don't mind. Also I was in with a dental hygienist who was already working on a patient when I came in to observe. The hygienist could tell that the patient was a mouth breather because her gums were inflamed. The gums get inflamed because they get dry, and sometimes the bacteria in the air could irritate the gums.
The bleeding is a sign of oncoming gum disease. After the patient had left the hygienist showed me the special machine they use to get tartar off of a patient's teeth in extreme situations. An extreme situation would mean that the tartar build up was so bad that you wouldn't even be able to feel your individual teeth. Once the machine touches the tartar it turns into powder which the patient spits out. She said she hadn't had to use that on a patient yet which she found good and bad. Good because all the tartar is gross but bad because she also finds the tartar interesting. She said that she wanted to be a dentist but never got around to it. She wanted to be a dentist because as a dental hygienist all you do is clean teeth, and give a couple x-rays. But as a dentist you could have something new to do
The chamber were different this time so I had to wrap some differently. The ones the hygienists use go in bags because they're too small to be wrapped. The chambers with blue dots are for Dr. Casey and Tina, they are the biggest chambers because they are used for root canals and crowns. I wrap these the way I'd wrap any other chamber but I would use a different type of tape on it to keep it sealed. I'm suppose to use the composite tape for the one with the blue dots, any of the chambers that have grey dots need tape with lines on it that turn green so they know the tools are clean. I also learned how to run the machine that cleans them. First I put all the wrapped chambers in the machine and close the door, the hardest part about this is closing the door which I actually needed help with because no matter what I did it wouldn't close. Linda helped me close the door then I turned the knob to water. You have to let the water run till it hit the metal line. After it gets to the line you turn the knob to STE which stands for sterilize. You leave the tools in for about thirty to thirty five minutes. A patient that came in used to be a dental hygienist. She was asking me about what they had me do here. I told her I cleaned and observed mainly but recently started handing the patient water to rinse with, I also got to hold the suction cup to the patient's mouth for them to spit into which is really