The first learning project I completed in this dental hygiene program was outreach to an elderly patient. This experience showed me how the elderly population is far underserved and truly need more attention. As we know, there is a strong link between oral health and systemic diseases. Ensuring that these patients have good oral health can help with their overall systemic health. Aside from this, in my personal experience I saw that sometimes these patients shy away from talking about oral hygiene or complaints they have. This project helped me in beginning to learn how to speak to patients and in teaching personalized oral homecare instruction.
Brushing is Cool with the Right Tool! Powerpoint
Brushing is Cool with the Right Tool! Paper
Unfortunately this service learning project could not be given in person, however it remains a collaborative project that I am very proud of. Working with my classmates, we created a program to help address the oral hygiene needs of autistic children in elementary school grades 4-5. Many children with autism have oral hygiene conditions related to their medications, self induced trauma, or due to their struggle in adequate removal of biofilm. We developed a public program aimed at encouraging and motivating these young children to brush, floss, and maintains good oral hygiene. Furthermore, we wanted to educate not only the students but their caregivers as well on the causes of caries and poor dental health, and how we can resolve it. We also discussed night guards, childhood caries and songs to help mitigate some of the common oral health struggles this population experiences. I mainly focused on introducing the various oral healthcare issues, ways we can begin to address them and reviewing what we’ve taught at the end of the presentation. This service learning project is the most memorable because I personally want to work with the pediatric population!
Antibacterial Nanoparticles In Resin Based Composites
Recurrent decay along the margins of restorations is something we see commonly in the clinical setting. Working with another classmate, we researched the impact that antibacterial nanoparticles can have in preventing this. Composites are susceptible to having increased bacteria retention, because of its porous quality, more than natural tooth surface! With this new technology, nanoparticles added into resin based composites can drastically reduce the bacteria on the surface of these restorations and chance of recurrent decay. This project was more research based, and a chance to learn more about emerging technologies in dental restorations.
