The Road to: Access to Care! Lobby Day

The invitation to the left says to sign up for free CEs but as a student, I obviously don't get any of those! I didn't even get extra credit for it. So why did I do it? Because I am passionate about access to care!

Here are some of our talking points from today:

SB0177: ​Amending provisions related to the practice of dental hygiene. 
Sponsored by: Senator Stephen Urquhart

● Currently thousands of Utah residents go without preventive dental hygiene treatment because of the outdated restrictions placed on dentists working with a hygienist. This prevents us from providing care because we are unable to find a dentist willing to regularly leave their private practice to examine people in alternate or public health settings.

● This is not about Hygienists or Dentists though. It is about being able to provide services to the vulnerable and underserved residents of our state.

● Our solution is addressed with SB0177​which will allow hygienists to work together with a dentist or government agency under the arrangements set forth in a collaborative agreement.

● By allowing us to utilize a collaborative agreement, we can increase the access to thousands of residents in the state that are unable to walk through the traditional dental office door. Providing preventive care to our most vulnerable and underserved citizens. 

● 37 other states allow the public direct access to dental hygienists in at least some alternate settings. As of yet, it has proven to be a safe way to advance public health.

The blue states are the ones that currently allow direct access for dental hygiene as of 2014.

I had everything I wanted to say memorized and I was revved up to lobby but it was really anticlimactic. No one wanted to talk to us and pretty much everyone we talked to already supported it! WHICH IS AWESOME, don't get me wrong. I was just a little disappointed I didn't get to harass anyone :) 

UPDATE: Some really exciting news is that SB0177 passed unanimously out of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee on February 18th! Woohoo! Next stop... The Senate floor! 

Follow the bills progress at le.utah.gov

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The Road to RDH: Mock Anesthesia Boards and Dentist's Night

Mock Anesthesia Clinical: 
I just did my mock anesthesia clinical today. I wasn't stressed at all because I have administered the PSA and IA so many times in the past, BUT when I went to set up my unit, there was no chair! I had to run around the school searching for a chair. I found one, but I barely scraped by with finishing my setup before the examiners came. This stressed me out. I was stressed out further when my examiners told me I could dismiss my patient and just left. They didn't watch me dispose of my sharps. I stood there confused and trying not to panic because I was sure I had failed. My examiners returned after 5 long minutes and said "Sorry! You can dispose of your sharps now!" I passed with 100%! And my patient was so great. She was one of the juniors and has never had anesthetic before so she really didn't know what she was getting herself into. I was worried about her being uncomfortable or scared but she told me after my exam that she couldn't even feel my injections at all so she hoped I passed because it was so painless for her and she thought I did awesome. I wish I could use her for my actual clinical anesthesia!

My advice for clinical anesthesia:

PSA (Posterior Superior Alveolar)

More PSA

IA (Inferior Alveolar)

I am kind of obsessed with this blog called HygieneEdge. I watched these videos of theirs several times right before my exam!

Mock Anesthesia Written: My results for mock written are pending. I would love to know right away because I take my written exam on the 25th!! This is what I am really nervous for. I feel pretty good about this particular exam but the actual one I take on the 25th could ask me anything!

I have less than two weeks until written anesthesia and one month until National Boards. To say this is stressful is an understatement! One of my classmates posted this on Facebook yesterday:

"Aaaannnnnddd I don't play tennis"

I got a good laugh about how accurate this is!!!!!! It is so stressful but we can get through this! It will be so rewarding in the end. On a less stressful note:

Dentist's Night

I am co-chair of my school's branch of the Student American Dental Hygiene Association's Professional Excellence committee. We felt that it would be beneficial to our class to meet with dentists and ask them questions about their pet peeves, what stands out to them in a new hygienist, interview questions. etc. We invited a few dentists in the area, fed them dinner, then followed with a Q&A session. They had great input! As a whole we learned:

1. Dentists HATE bad x-rays. (Of course) These stand out to them in a bad way. SO TAKE GOOD ONES! They also hold you accountable for your assistant's bad x-rays. You are responsible for retaking theirs if they are not diagnostic.
2. Dentists love it when you can diagnose their patients for them and have something written down for them when they come for their exam. (Ex: MO on 13, RCT 30, etc) I have a hard time seeing carious lesions unless they are quite large so I need to study up on this!
3. Dentists LOVE bubbly personalities. So even if you aren't bubbly, try to be! They also gave some advice about patient treatment. They said that if you are behind and feeling rushed, do not let your patient know. They can sense when something is wrong. You need to take time when they first come in and talk to them like you have all the time in the world. After a minute of chatting and establishing rapport, THEN you can rush through treatment.
4. Dentists love to ask jerky questions in their interviews like "I'm a patient that has been going to this practice every 6 months for 15 years. You do my assessment and discover I have periodontitis. What do you say to me?" Your response here is essential because this is real life. You need to be careful not to make your dentist look bad, and you don't want any lawsuits!
5. They also actually like it (sometimes) if you can be a little personal during your interviews (while still being professional). So if they ask what your goals are it can be OK to include a couple personal ones in your response. Personal = personable.
6. Do not ever, EVER, tell your patient that it is your first day or that you are new there. EVER.

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