Skill developed throughout NYCCT Dental Hygiene Program to assist in providing patient care and working as a dental assistant in a private office
How I enhanced my skills?
- In the first semester, skills were acquired through mutual practice.
- In the second to fourth semesters, diversified skills by practicing about 50 cases through about 100 patient training sessions.
- During the semester, continue to work as dental assistants, gained experience in clinical flow, teamwork, and actual patient care.
Skill set developed
- Complete patient assessments including extensive review of medical history, documentation of vitals, head and neck exam, extra & intraoral exam – oral cancer screening, dental charting, and periodontal charting.
- Able to identify soft tissue lesions such as candidiasis, HHV, aphthous ulcers, etc.
- Able to identify hard tissue alterations such as abrasion, abfraction, attrition, caries, etc.
- Use data collected during assessments to diagnose patients’ dental health, including staging and grading periodontitis and identifying caries risk.
- Identify need for and exposure of dental radiographs.
- Interpretation of radiographs to identify dental caries, pathology, and periodontal disease.
- Collaborate with patients and professors to establish an individualized treatment plan.
- Able to review and modify treatment plan when appropriate.
- Provide patients with oral hygiene instruction and help improve oral self-care through motivational interviewing.
- Provide preventative and therapeutic services including scaling and root planing, engine polishing, fluoride treatment administration, and providing appropriate pain management.
- Application of dental sealants.
- Administration of local anesthesia.
- Administration of Nitrous Oxide sedation.
- Able to participate in interprofessional collaboration and present the role of dental hygienists in a care team.
- Provided whitening procedures and fabrication of whitening trays.
- Experienced in taking alginate impression and fabricated study models.
- Competent in taking digital impressions with Itero digital dental scanner.
Additional Skills
- Bilingual – English & Korean
- Dental Software – Dentimax/Dentrix/OpenDental/Dexis/Itero scanner
- Microsoft Ofice Suite
