In the hygiene program, I have taken care of and given the best to my patients. I have taken care of patients having various conditions and also of various age groups. I have experience with patient care throughout my two years of being a student hygienist in this program and providing the utmost care of my patients.
I had several patients with different conditions. One of my patients was Mr. YG; he did not have any other medical conditions except for periodontitis. The patient had not been to a dental office for more than 4 years. The patient is a family friend so I recommended them to come in for an SRP (which I thought was necessary for him). When he came in, he had no idea why we could not complete his cleaning in less than an hour until I explained to him about the assessments and scaling we perform. His chief complaint was that his gums bled whenever he brushed his teeth and he believed it was normal for everyone. I was very sad to hear that he thought it was normal. His periodontal type was type II localized III and was a heavy class value. The gums were very inflamed with bulbous interdental papillae. When I explained about gingivitis and periodontitis and how it progressed, he was very shocked. He said he never thought his gums were in bad condition. After the treatment and follow up, most of his probing depths were less than before; he had less inflammation and was following the toothbrushing method I had taught him, was flossing and using mouth rinse at least once a day. There were a few sites that had probing depths of 5mm (previously 6mm) so we used Arestin on those sites and did a follow-up. The probing depths were 3 mm post-treatment. The patient was very satisfied with the result and stated that his gums did not bleed anymore.
Another patient I had was a 68-year-old female who had different conditions. She had thyroid problems and early glaucoma. she had been taking many medications and was under the supervision of her physician. Her physician had told her she could not use any fluoride in any form; in water or toothpaste. the patient was a Perio type II localized to III with multiple furcations on the posterior teeth. There weren’t any medications that had complications to dental treatment except the patient was skeptical about using fluoride products even if she was not going to swallow it. The patient seemed very interested in oral hygiene and stated she flosses every day but the plaque score was quite high. Since I had to help the patient in obtaining good oral hygiene, I advised the patient to use mouth rinses with essential oils (she did not use any mouthwash thinking all had fluoride in it), corrected, and taught her the right way to floss and brush. The patient learned it and was glad to learn the right way. I suggested the patient ask her physician if she could use fluoride products (like toothpaste and mouth rinses as they would be expectorated) because fluoride could really help her get optimum care.
I had a 45 years old male patient who was a tobacco smoker and had controlled hyperthyroidism. the patient was taking methimazole. there were not any complications during the treatment. The patient had never done a dental cleaning before so he had tenacious heavy calculus with stains. The stains could have been caused by smoking. I tried to persuade the patient on quitting smoking by explaining to him about all the consequences it could lead to. The patient said he would try to quit and had been wanting to quit for a while now. The treatment plan was not different than other patients.
