Welcome To The Hygiene Corner...

Each Month We Will Discuss Issues, Concerns, And Success Stories of Practicing CDM Wellness Hygiene Coaches

We are pleased to announce the “Dental Hygienist Corner”, a column written for and by dental hygienists. The Dental Hygienist Consultant representatives of CDM look forward to receiving your feedback.  We are hearing about your issues and concerns that are significant to you at your practice and sharing what we are aware of so that we can collaborate and continue to enrich your dental office team. 

            This column will provide an opportunity to network within the CDM hygiene community.  CDM hygienists are set apart from the mainstream and are distinguished as forerunners in the clinical application of the oral systemic connection.  Together, we will be better equipped to walk through the journey of change.  As we negotiate the cutting edge of change in health and wellness and lead the way against resistance to change, we are able to encourage one another to persevere toward the victory!

            Some of the survey questions that we will address will be familiar to you since they have been your experiences as well as ours and we hear you!  Are the challenges of delivering effective periodontal care understood?  What are your top ten goals as the dental hygiene expert in your practice?  How can we collaborate to achieve these goals?

            In this month's issue we cover "How do you know if your patients have perio?"  We encourage you to submit your questions, concerns and successes as, together, we take a closer look at our mutual interests throughout the upcoming issues.   We will continue to pay attention to your responses. 

Donna Hendon, RDH

Consultant Rep

email: donnahendon@sbcglobal.net

How do you know if your patients have periodontal disease?

Here are some questions we need to ask ourselves:

·        Are my abilities to identify periodontal disease being fully utilized?

·        Am I supported in my desire to apply them fully?

·        Am I keeping up with the changes in medicine and dentistry?

·        Is there anything more that can or should be added to our current protocols?

·        Am I stuck in a 30 year old legacy hygiene protocol?

·        Do I want to expand my understanding and skills?

We must ask ourselves these questions!  Even though hygienists who have been “in the trenches” of clinical hygiene know what periodontal disease looks like.  We put on our waders and trudge through the depth, width and length of those precarious trenches every day! We look for many signs and indications of health and disease.  For many RDHs, the clinical check list might look like this:

Mhx/meds/diabetes/pregnancy

Appearance of gingiva

Probing depths

Bleeding upon probing/scaling

Deposits-soft & hard supra/sub

Previous periodontal history

Home care habits

We are highly trained, motivated, and enthusiastic professional dental care providers.  We all started out inexperienced, uncertain (or maybe even overly confident), but always willing to step up to save teeth and gums. 

Then, the reality of making everything fit into the real world demands of production, schedules, established protocols, insurance “controls” and DDS/team dynamics had to take precedence.  We had to find our own paths of comfort, practicality, effectiveness, and adaptability to fit into whatever job situation we needed to.  Were we able to continue to apply our diagnostic and treatment skills to the best of our ability?  

Many RDHs find themselves in a place where they feel the need to “compromise” in order to fit into the office dynamics.  This can be a very precarious place.  This is where we have to make choices and decisions that can either help us to grow as periodontal therapists or settle into a 30 year old legacy hygiene protocol that is slow to change and resistant to change.  We have all seen offices that would only allow for “prophy queen” clinicians.  But did we choose to stay there?  Did we try to bring in supportive changes or did we allow ourselves to get stuffed into that “prophy queen” box?  Typically, most of us do the best we can in the situations we are in.  We take pride in our work and believe that things can’t be done any better.

A large percentage of hygienists have settled into a comfortable place of familiarity with the legacy protocols.  Some dental hygienists desire to keep up with the ever changing knowledge that medical/dental science continues to provide for us.  But will the doctor/employer be willing to allow for any changes?  If not, it is easier to simply choose to remain in the comfortable and familiar place of past knowledge and out dated protocols.  Why bother swimming against the current of resistance to change when it is much cozier to snuggle up to the familiar habits of out dated protocols!  After all, we do have to insure that the paycheck continues to come.

So now we have to ask ourselves more questions. 

·        Is our perio charting consistent and accurate among all of the clinicians?

·        Can we bring the patient to understand the presence/risks of pathogenic bacteria?

·        Will measuring those bacteria better equip us to address the cause of the disease rather than just the symptoms?

·        How do we know if the pathogenic bacteria have invaded the body systemically?

·        Have the pathogenic bacteria caused any systemic life-threatening consequences?

·        Are our current protocols creating greater risks for the patient’s systemic health?

·        How can we clinically apply the information that science has been providing?

·        Is there a more effective way to get the desired results?

·        Have legacy hygiene myths “desensitized” my beliefs for optimal health?

·        Am I just as willing to save lives as I am to save teeth and gums?

·        Am I willing to elevate my level of learning to usher in life saving results?            

There is a way we can make a difference!

Stay tuned for more insight into the challenge of saving lives with the changing protocols for the oral systemic connection.