 Hello everybody, Andrew Maeski here with Dental Tutoring. So it's my day off today, hence my outfit. It is Saturday, love it. I have been working like crazy late because I started my mobile hygiene practice last year and things are always a little bit slow to begin with you would assume, but not for me. Things kicked off right away, which is amazing. And, you know, I've just been working so much but I am always learning as something new. Now I do still work in a private practice also. So what I want to talk about today is the mistakes that I'm still making as a dental hygienist because every new dental hygienist or even new dental assistant always thinks, okay, I can't wait till I've been working for like five years, 30 years, you know, six years because I will no longer make any mistakes. I still make mistakes. It's okay, we're not perfect. There will be staff members out there who think they are, but they're really not. It's totally normal to make mistakes. Your boss, your dentist will make mistakes. So I'm gonna kind of jump back and forth of the mistakes that I make in my hygiene practice, my mobile hygiene practice, but also still working at an office. Maybe not mistakes, but just things that need to be improved upon if that makes sense. So then that way you guys can see that we all make mistakes. So if you're new thinking you just can't do anything right, hang in there. Okay, it takes time. So just a couple of them. And I made some notes here in my mobile hygiene practice. So the mistakes that I'm kind of still making is that I will always forget something. Now I am sending treatment off to insurance. So patients don't pay me first. I submit it to insurance and they will only pay me the difference. And the one mistake that I keep making is I will print off forms ahead of time. So then that way all they have to do is to sign, but sometimes if the treatment changes, right, then you have to add the codes, add the treatment in there. So I do it on paper because that's just easier for me because they don't have a dental software program yet because they're expensive. And I kind of wanna get more patients before I start doing that, right? But I keep doing that. I keep forgetting something. And just a little tip for you, if you're in an office and you lost something or you forget something, don't say, oh, shoot, I forgot this again, this keeps happening. I just simply say, oh, you know what? I need to print off another form for you guys since the treatment changed a little bit. So I'm going to do that at home, but I will send that through your email tonight. Or I might even say, I give digital copies only. So I will print that off for you and then you just have to sign electronically. So just kind of depending what I'm thinking that day, that's kind of how I will spin things if I forget something because quite often, even if I'm adding in another code, you know, I don't have the codes memorized because as a dental hygiene provider, our codes are different. I keep a piece of paper on my clipboard with the most common codes, plus I do have them on my iPad. But sometimes I forget that clipboard or I forget my iPad. So I can't even add the codes in if I wanted to. So just kind of little things that I keep forgetting that way. Just trying to think now. It's just kind of forgetting like little things here and there, like the other day, I had recommended a toothpaste that is sold by Oral Science. I was talking about how amazing this toothpaste is. I went to go get some from my car because the patient wanted it, but I forgot my huge like sample box at home. So I typically keep a box in my trunk with like toothpaste, like different things in case the patient wants it. Because me being mobile, even if I say, oh, I recommend for you Sensenine because you wanna start with the whitening. So use the Sensenine for at least a week or two. I like to actually have that on hand so that if the patient wants it, they don't have to go to the store and then say, which toothpaste did she ask for again? Like which one should I be using? So I just sell it to them at cost. In Ontario, we're not allowed to sell it for more than at cost if that makes sense because the CDHO says to us only sell it at cost so you're not making any additional money because if you're making more money, you might be selling it just for the sake of making more money, but not because you're a dental hygienist and that's the best thing for the patient. So I always sell everything at cost. So yeah, so it's just kind of forgetting things and that happens in the real world in a private practice, the same mistakes that I'm still making is just kind of little things. Like now we are charging the OHI code for all new patients because most insurance companies do accept that code. It's about $41 for a unit, I think, of time and we do OHI at every single appointment anyway. So technically they say we should be charging for that once and then that sort of covers them for lifetime. If it's covered, dental offices see it as why not charge them. Yeah, it's true, but that's what they say. I keep forgetting that code. So the receptionist kind of says to me, you forgot to charge the OHI code. We can do it next time, but then we have to explain to the patient, well, we should have done it the first time with the new patient exam because it's much easier to kind of train a new patient that, well, this is just the new patient package that we all do because they might go, oh, this OHI code, I've never seen that before. But I keep forgetting that. You know what I keep forgetting you guys is I keep forgetting blood pressure. We should now be taking blood pressure at every appointment for every patient. And a lot of offices where I work, we take the blood pressure at the new patient exams and at their complete exams. So every five years we do what's called a COE, so a complete oral exam, where we go through charting again, we make sure the x-rays are up to date. We typically take the checkup x-rays every year, every year and a half depending on the patient. But like other x-rays, we just wanna make sure that they're up to date. We'll take a pant every five years or so, but I keep forgetting blood pressure. And we only have the one in our office. So if somebody else is taking the blood pressure, I tell myself that I'll do it at the end of the appointment, but then I forget. And then they wonder, Andrea, why didn't you take blood pressure? I've been practicing for 14 years, but it's just something new that I don't do it. In my own practice, I do, but I don't do it in private practice. I just don't always speak about it. Another thing is, you guys, for new patient exams, I keep forgetting the intraoral photos. I love intraoral photos, but I'm not very good at taking them, so I just kinda don't like doing it. But for you newbies out there, everything, especially x-rays, like you're probably not comfortable taking x-rays yet, so you kinda shy away from doing them, but keep on doing them because the more you do it, the more practice you have, the better you will become. So I need to take this lesson for myself, to keep doing those intraoral photos because the more I do them, the better I will be. So those are just kind of the mistakes that I keep making, not the end of the world, but still. I'm still always a little bit behind for private practice. We have one hour per patient, but lately we've been taking a lot of x-rays. They want me to take x-rays, like if they've never had anterior PAs, they want me to take them on that patient. So my one hour appointment sounds great, but when I'm adding six more x-rays, well that takes at least five minutes, maybe even more depending on the patient, right? If they're having a hard time, we have to give them a break, things like that. So I'm still behind. I guess those things aren't too bad, right? But just remember, everybody makes mistakes. I need to sharpen my instruments more at private practice. There's never any time, at the end of the day, you just kinda wanna run out of there, but that is something that I need to work on. I find time to sharpen my instruments with my own practice, because it's my time, I guess, as silly as that sounds, but in private practice, for some reason, I just don't find the time, because that's not something that you usually get paid for, like if you stay behind to sharpen instruments or come in early, but it's just kinda one of those things. I work with another hygienist where she does admin duties when I'm not there. So maybe she should take away some of her admin duties and sharpen the instruments, that'd be awesome. Wouldn't that be awesome? Because I kinda work the shifts that nobody wants to work. So I work like two till seven, 30. But I don't mind doing that a couple of days a week, because it still kinda keeps me current, and I'm still in an office, but I still prefer seeing my own patients in my own practice, but I mean still, it's the same thing, right? So it's just something that I still love to do. I don't see stopping that anytime soon, because it does help to work for somebody else, be in another office, see different patients, and with me being a mobile dental hygienist, it's a lot easier for me to be in somebody else's office because I don't have to move around. So that's kinda nice to you. But yeah, you guys, I can't really think of any other mistakes, but if you guys want to share with me some of your mistakes or things that you have to work on, let's talk about it. So then that way people know that they're not alone, and as a hygienist, you will make mistakes. That's okay. Learn from them, and hopefully the mistakes you're making aren't crazy serious. Oh, I should mention, when I help out with sterilizing, now when you put things through the statum as an example, there's a log book where you put down like how many pouches you put in, how many cassettes. I always forget to do that, but then I end up doing it at the end when I take everything out. So then I'm like, oh shoot, I forgot to write down how many pouches was in here. So let me just count them again. So that's something I keep forgetting. Oh boy. I will learn one day. I have 14 years experience, but maybe next year I will finally learn. So thank you guys for listening. Hope this helped a little bit to just know that you're not alone, and I'll see you guys in the next one.