 Hi everybody, Andrew Mayesky here with Dental L. So let's talk about some surprising or maybe not so surprising things that when you start working in a dental office some things that are just simply not acceptable. Meaning if you do these things you probably will not have your job for much longer. There are many things that are also surprising that employers accept and I'll talk about that too that you might not realize. Oh like that's okay, you know, like I would rather do that than do this. So I'm going to talk to you guys about some of those things and I say this because we have had a lot of new new dental professionals coming in lately. Just a lot of people seem to either be moving away or they leave our office because they just want to work closer to home. And I've worked in a couple offices too. So I'm kind of taking bits and pieces from many different offices that I've seen over just over the past couple years. I do have 14 years experience, but this is primarily over the last couple years. So one of the things that employers just simply will not accept from what I've seen again, so I can't speak to everybody, but just things that I have seen is if you smoke, okay, and that might sound surprising or maybe not so surprising, but if you smoke, what I've noticed is smokers, and sorry, I'm kind of putting you guys into a category because I don't smoke, but they need to take their smoke breaks. And once you start working in a dental office, you will soon realize you when you get a break, you don't know when that break is going to be and that is when you will be eating or you will be doing other things. If you have to rush out too often to take a smoke break, it doesn't look good and there's just no time for that. But more importantly, you will come back smelling like smoke and you can't smell like smoke for patients. So you just can't. It makes us look bad. It makes you look bad because there's a certain stereotype with any healthcare professionals that we just simply don't smoke. Just like if you're a dental hygienist, a dental assistant, a dental receptionist, if you have really, really bad teeth and you have missing teeth, they're just kind of, you know, your breath smells bad, they're not going to come see you because that is, you know, they're not going to listen to anything you say. If you tell them to brush and floss, they're going to tell you to do the same thing. You know, you get the idea, right? But having that said, I'm thinking of one person that I had worked with in the past, no names mentioned, that I didn't even know she smoked because she just hit it so well, she didn't have to take constant smoke breaks and when she did smoke, which was apparently at lunchtime, I couldn't tell. So she was able to cover that up. So if you're able to cover it up, that's fine, obviously, but just something to be aware of. Another one, which is actually probably more important, is do not show up late, meaning if your first patient is at 9 o'clock in the morning, you are likely expected to be there for 8.30, maybe 8.45. I like to see, I like to be there for my patients half an hour early because that allows me to look through charts. It lets me take my time. I don't have to feel like I have to hurry, hurry, hurry. So I'm always there half an hour early, but some offices, they're just simply not open that early. So you might be lucky to get in 15 minutes early. It just kind of depends on where you work. But if your first patient's at 9, don't show up at 9 o'clock or 5 to 9. Because if there's been any changes, if they wanted to talk to you about something, if there was a morning huddle, you will be missing that. And that just shows us that you don't care. Whether you care or not, it just kind of shows us that you don't care. It just kind of shows us, okay, she doesn't really, he or she doesn't really want to be here. So that is something that we do keep in mind, okay? So always be a keener, show up early, that kind of thing. Another one, which may be surprising because I've mentioned this before as a good thing, but now it's actually a bad thing depending on how far you take it. And that is asking too many questions. Sorry guys, I have a really itchy nose. I wish I had my Kleenex somewhere. Anyways, this is what happens when you do a video live and you don't edit afterwards. All of the videos that I do have not been edited, it is just me, okay? Anyways, okay. So my next tip, I guess, is don't ask too many questions, meaning questions are a good thing. I personally love it when a new assistant, a new hygienist, a new whoever asks questions because it shows me they are motivated. But there's such a thing as asking too many questions, meaning you sound like you have no experience. So even if you are a hygienist, it's kind of hard for us to ask questions because we're not usually having somebody watching us or training us per se. We just have to jump in there and do it since we are a provider. So I'm going to actually switch it back for assistants. So normally when you start somewhere, you probably have somebody training you or at the very least, you are always working with the dentist. So if you have questions, you will be asking them while you guys are seeing patients, right? But asking too many questions is a thing such as, you know, oh, what type of bond should we use? You like this fur, this fur, this fur, or this fur, where is this? Like what's happening here? Oh, how come you're doing that? Oh, should I be suctioning? That's too many questions, okay? It's okay to ask questions, but try to always keep in mind, you don't want the patient to know you are brand new. If they ask you, oh, how long have you been here for? You could always say, well, I have this many years of experience. So I would have said if you've been in school for two years, hey, I have two years experience, but this is my first day here, or this is my first week here, you know, something like that. You're not lying, but it just makes you sound like you're not, like, a day old, right? That's okay. Patients still asking me that, oh, how long have you been here for? Oh, just a couple years now, or you know, depending on where I've been working, but I work part-time and not all the time, so they don't always see me. So when they see me, they might think I'm new, but it's kind of a funny question to me. But yeah, so you see how asking too many questions can make you look bad, whereas if you ask something simple as, you know, oh, would you like me to pass you this first or pass you that first? I mean, even those types of questions you don't really have to be asking, they will just tell you, okay? They will just tell you and then maybe after the patients say, okay, did I do okay? Do you prefer that I do asking more questions as we're going along? Because I didn't want to ask too much to make it look like I'm new. So I just kind of waited for you to tell me what you wanted because every doctor is different. As a dental assistant, even if you're the best one out there, every doctor is different. You don't know what they're thinking until you work with them for at least I feel a couple weeks and then you will be a step ahead of them or, you know, three steps ahead of them, but you don't know them yet. So don't feel bad. Whether you're a new assistant or you've been working for a while, you took some time off, but those types of things are okay, but just don't ask so many questions that you look new, okay? Another one is, sorry, I just kind of lost my train of thought. Another one is, if you don't help out, like, yes, that sounds corny, but it's so true. Like, if you're done at the end of the day and say, okay, bye, you guys see you later, yet you can see other assistants, other hygienists putting instruments away, you know, organizing, mopping, putting charts away, something like that. If you just say, okay, thanks guys, bye. I have to go now. Okay, bye. Trust me, we all have to go. At the end of the day, we all have to go. Trust me, we do. Whether it be to go home to eat because we haven't eaten all day or we have to pick up kids or whatever, we all have to go, but stay to help out. If you just honestly can't, let them know. Say, hey guys, like I can't stay today. I am so, so sorry, but I have to pick up my daughter. Her dad can't today. I don't know, something. But then make it a point to help them out as much as possible the next time, because I know it sounds silly, but we all pay attention to that. And I don't mind helping people out at all, but I mind helping people out that don't help me. If they never stay behind, yet if the one day they're late, or they're seeing a patient later than me, I'm not going to help them because if they don't help me, although I say that and that never happens. I think I've just, I've just always helped everybody and everybody's always helped me. I've always been with a good team, but be helpful. Even if you're not sure what to do, you guys, ask. If things look pretty hectic in the back where you can't just say, oh, hey, can I help you with something? Like, I know you're in the middle of a tooth extraction, but what do you need me to do? That might not be the best time to ask, but then go up to the front and just see if they need help. If they need help with you putting charts away, you know, something like that. So you do look busy and then when you're done doing that, go back to the back and then just see if anybody needs help with anything because trust me, even if we don't need help, it's so nice to be offered help. What else? Okay, so just another kind of thing too is when you are new, we don't expect you to be quick, quick, quick. We don't expect you to know everything. We don't expect that, but we do expect quality and we do expect you to know the things that matter, meaning if you put a high-speed handpiece in the ultrasonic, that's bad. Okay, we do expect you to know that, that the high speeds don't go in the ultrasonic. We do expect you to know that when a patient comes in, you seat the patient. Don't just sit there twiddling your thumbs, not knowing what to do. Seat the patient. We do expect you to know that. We do expect you to have things ready for the patient when they come in. And I'm talking dental assistance, dental hygiene, anybody. We do expect you guys to know that much. We do expect you to keep things tidy. We do expect you to be quick in the sense that when you're done with the patient, take them out into the waiting room and then quickly clean up your room. Not take a break, have a coffee, come back, wipe the counter, take your notes, put the instruments away. No, we expect you to be quick. Put the instruments away, wipe the room, take your notes with whatever you have to do. But those things, we do expect you to be quick with because you would have learned that in school. Okay, things in school are different than the real world, meaning you don't have to, you know, I don't know about you guys, but when I was in clinic in schools, I would have to like pre-clean with soap and water twice. Then I would have to take out the disinfectant solution, clean that twice. You know, it was ridiculous, okay? So the real world is different, but we do expect you to be careful and do it properly. So does that make sense? As always, this was meant to be a shorter video because I don't want to make you guys fall asleep over there, but I do hope this helped. If you have questions, please let me know. I've been crazy busy lately, so I have not been able to comment on all of the comments yet, but I promise to be doing that today. Okay, so thank you guys for your patience. You guys are awesome, and thank you for watching. If you haven't yet, make sure to click subscribe, and I think there's a little bell notification that if you click that too, that will notify you when I do upload a new video. So that's always fun. So if you live and breathe dental like me, then it's so nice to see all of you guys, and I will talk to you soon. Have a good week. It's so nice and hot out there. Bye!