 Hello everybody, Andrea here with dental L. So are you a new dental hygienist who has just graduated and you start your first day working at the dental office very soon? Or maybe you're about to graduate and you're starting to think of and get nervous working at a dental office for the first time as a dental hygienist. What is it like seeing real life people? What does the office expect of you? What are some questions you should be asking before you start your first day and what you should know versus what you don't really have to know being new. So let me give you guys a couple tips. So before you start your first day, let's say you have been offered the job. Amazing. Congratulations. There are a couple of things that I do want you guys to ask. I want you to ask, do you wear a uniform and what is the uniform? Sometimes offices say you can wear any scrubs you want just as long as they are scrubs. Some offices say yes, we wear black pants, any shirt you want, but a black lab coat over top. So ask what your uniform is. Okay, that is very important. But then also ask how early can you come on your first day to get yourself situated. I don't want you guys to show up one hour early. That is awesome, but don't show up an hour early if there's nobody there. Sometimes the first staff member doesn't arrive to open up the office until half an hour before. So if you're showing up an hour early, that's just a waste of time. So it's good to show you are dedicated and you want to do well. You want to show up early just to simply be able to look at the office and get yourself situated. You want to see the charts to prepare yourself, to look where the sterilization area is, where is your room, where are the x-ray equipment, you know, films, all of that. It's good to check that a little bit earlier than you would normally show up. When I was a dental hygienist, I liked to show up at least a half an hour early, and that was cutting it close because I like to look through all of my charts. I like to prepare myself to see, oh, this patient hasn't been in for two years. I might not be able to finish their cleaning today if there's a lot of plaque and tartar. I'm going to take x-rays because it's been two years. Last time they had six cavities, I might ask them about that, ask them more about their brushing. So I like to prepare myself. So that way, if I get behind throughout the day, half an hour behind, which would always happen to me, I'm not going to have time to look at the chart and be like, okay, what does this patient need? I would have left myself notes already. That saves me time. So definitely show up early for your first day. A couple other things to be prepared for. The patient chart. So even as a new dental hygienist, we do expect you to know the patient chart, meaning you should look at the last two or three entries. So you kind of know what is the patient's oral hygiene like? Do they always have a cavity at every single visit? You might want to talk to them about that. Do they always come in every six months? And it's been nine months this time. Talk to them about that. It's good to look through the past entries so you're prepared because you want to act like a pro. Even if you're not a pro, it's your first day. Patients don't know that. And that brings me to my next point. If a patient says to you, I've never seen you before, who are you? Don't say, oh, it's my first day. Hi, hi, hi. Don't say that. Simply say, oh, you know what? You actually look very familiar. You know, say something like that. Or, yeah, you know what? I haven't seen you before either. I don't think so. Hi, my name's Andrea. Nice to meet you. I'm going to be your dental hygienist today. So don't let them know it's your first day. If they still pester you, are you new here? Who are you? I don't want a student because some weird patients do that. I would never do that. But some patients do that. If they pester you, I mean, don't lie. But I would say yes, I am new here. This is an amazing office. I love it so far. I've never seen you before. I work Tuesdays and Thursdays. So that's probably why. So notice how I'm not lying, but I'm kind of avoiding the question of are you new here? It's not bad to say you are new, but why? You know, it's just going to make the patient feel like, oh, she or he doesn't know what they're doing, which isn't true. But just kind of something like that, okay? What do you do if you're behind? So if you're half an hour behind, you're like, oh my goodness, I suck. Don't worry. I promise you. Seeing patients in the real world is so much harder than in school, just staying on time, because you're going to be so overwhelmed. Looking at everything, you're going to be probably meeting the dentist for the first time. They're going to be coming in for some appointments for a check. That can be nerve wracking for the dental hygienists. Like how do I tell them there's a check? Do I wait? What if the dentist keeps me waiting? Don't worry if you're behind. Just simply apologize to the patients, say, you know what, I am so sorry to keep you 20 minutes waiting, but now we are all set. If a patient gets really upset, then I take it a step further and say to them, I am sorry. I am more than happy to rebook your appointment if needed. I can see you are upset. And that usually stops them because they don't want to rebook. They just want to make you feel bad. So that usually stops them from complaining, okay? Don't feel bad if you're behind. If you're super behind and you have a patient who hasn't been in for two years, don't be afraid to tell them like, oh, you have a lot of plaque, a lot of tartar today. We might not be able to finish the whole cleaning today because it's been two years, but next time we will get caught up. No problem. Keep up with the every six months or every nine months and then we'll be able to do the whole cleaning from now on in one appointment. Do not be afraid to rebook appointments, especially if you're behind. So I kind of talked about that more inside the course. So if you guys want to hear more, I do have a course called Dental LRDH for newly graduated dental hygienists. I love this course because as a newly graduated dental hygienist, you're nervous. You don't know what to do, who to ask, what questions to ask, what to do, what not to do. I remember those days. I help you in this full course. I go through everything that you have to know, including infection control, chart notes, how to talk to patients, what to do on your first day, what to wear if you're not sure, how to talk about money, how to talk about getting a raise after your three month probation. If you have that, I talk about everything you guys. So I will leave the link for you down below. I hope this helped and I look forward to seeing you inside the course if you want to know more and if you are a new dental hygienist. So good luck, you guys, and please keep me posted and I'll see you guys very, very soon.