Dental Hygiene Internship, Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, NY
June 2017 – August 2017
As a part of the JFEW Scholarship Program, I had the opportunity to work with Dental Hygienists in a clinical hospital setting and gain valuable professional experience. My responsibilities included assessing patients’ oral health conditions, reviewing their health history; and performing oral cancer screening, head and neck inspection, dental charting, scaling, and root planing.
Among my experiences at this internship was working with patients with different conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, HIV, Hepatitis B, Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, as well as patients with seizures, patients in wheelchairs, etc. Most patients were Periodontal Types II, III, and IV.
During the course of this internship, from June to August 2017, I had opportunity to provide dental cleaning for 268 patients (one patient per thirty-minute appointment).
Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to have served as a Dental Hygiene intern at the Kings County Hospital. I gained valuable insight into the clinical side of Dental Hygiene practice. And, because I had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of patients, I was able to better understand many different aspects of my future career.