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Thank you for signing up to the Alabama Hygiene Club! Our goal is to bring you real time information with the most current CE's, new products, and job postings. Hygienists are an integral part of the success and profitability of their dental practice. The Alabama Hygiene Club is an excellent resource to stay relevant to the latest information, great products, job postings, and information that will advance your career and help your practice succeed!
Featured Product
Q-Optics manufactures the lightest ergonomic flip style and custom loupes on the dental market. They also specialize in fiberoptic headlights, instruments, and they offer freedom of portability with their Radiant LED light systems. Did I mention they have a lifetime warranty with a great price? If you are willing to try a FREE demo, click below.
Click HERE.
Tips & Tricks
We have all probably tried to drink our coffee and even wine through a straw to avoid staining our teeth, but what else can cause stains? And can stains be removed? Let’s discover how we can use the color and pattern of stains to see how they occurred and whether they can be removed. If you are taking the dental hygiene board exams, try your best to memorize the summary of teeth staining below.
Staining by Color
The color of the stain tells a lot about how the discoloration occurred:
- Orange-red: chromogenic bacteria, chromic acid/copper chemicals
- Yellow: heavy dental biofilm/calculus
- Green: Nasmyth’s membrane (thin tissue on newly erupted teeth), copper/nickel chemicals
- Blue: dentinogenesis imperfecta, dentin dysplasia
- Brown spot: potential carious lesions, fluorosis
- Brown: chlorhexidine, tobacco, food (e.g., red wine, tea, coffee), stannous fluoride
- Black: iron/silver/manganese chemicals, betel leaves
- Grey: pulp necrosis, amalgam restoration
- White: demineralization, fluorosis
- Bands of dark colors: tetracycline1
The Workplace
Improving Communication Skills…
Nobody likes to go to the dentist. Anything we can do to make visits more pleasant, starting when the patient walks in the door, is advantageous. There are five essential skills needed in developing a superb chairside manner.
Look. Engaging eye contact always ensures the patient that you are listening. Raise the chair upright when explaing something so as one is not to “speak down” to the other.
Listen. The ability to read someone is by listening. Sometimes we can engage in selective listening and it often shows. Actively listening to your patient can encourage someone to feel comfortable in the chair.
Linger. Always be aware of your schedule, but if a patient is telling you something that is important or exciting for them, be all ears!
Touch. An appropriate touch to the patient can effectively communicate to him/her that you genuinely care for them.
Identify. Identifying dental problems is easy for us. However, identifying what will make a particular patient happy is not always easy.
Patient Education
Thank goodness for the mask...
In simple terms, pH is a measure of acidity. It runs on a scale from 1-14 with 1 being the most acidic and 14 the most alkaline. The ideal pH level for our mouths is neutral between 6.4 -7.2 right in the middle of the scale.
Saliva with higher acidity attracts bacteria which are harmful to our teeth, while higher alkaline saliva attracts good bacteria which are less harmful.
Here are 5 easy tips on how to help keep saliva pH balanced, so you can feel confident about getting up close and personal.
- Drink more water and increase saliva flow.
- Eat less sugary foods and more green vegetables. Sugar ferments in the mouth to become highly acidic whereas green veges are high in alkaline and water.
- Use a non-alcohol mouthwash Alcohol is acidic, plus the coloring in supermarket mouthwash stains teeth. There are professional quality mouthwashes that help to balance pH and truly eliminate bad breath.
- Chew Xylitol Gum. Xylitol is a natural sweetener that neutralizes pH. You can even taste it neutralizing the acid as you chew on it.
- Brush & floss properly, regularly. We can’t stress this one enough. Proper brushing and flossing is fundamental to great oral health.
- Rinse with baking soda and water to neutralize acid, and hydrogen peroxide and water to kill bacteria.
Featured CE Event:
Spots are filling up fast so don't be last! Hands on CE events are always more effective, take advantage of our big fall CE event by securing a spot. Simply go to www.alabamahygiene.com, under the "CE Events" tab, this will be our featured event. Click "Register for Course" to secure your spot!
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1. Claire Jeong, BS, MS, RDH, C. (2016, June 17). Generate APA citations for Websites. Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-website/manual