 Hello everybody Andrea with dental l I had a great question from one of my YouTube visitors, they had left me a comment. And had asked me to talk about what is expected when you first start working in a dental practice, whether you are a dental hygienist or a dental assistant. i'm going to kind of mix the two together of what we expect of you, so you might kind of hear me mentioned dental assisting and then dental hygiene so i'm going to do a little bit of both because they are. Very, very similar so number one is we don't expect you to know everything we get it in fact, sometimes I think we're we're even too easy on people. Where you can make mistakes and we just assume okay well they don't know they will do better next time. i'm not saying make tons of mistakes but we're not expecting you to be perfect and to know everything, but we are expecting you to ask. Questions, the worst thing you can do is not ask a question when you don't know something and we think you do know something as an example. let's say as a dental assistant, you are told to set up for the next patient well let's say you don't know how let's say you don't know what a restorative kit looks like or something. don't just stand there and look around and just pretend you had set it up, but you didn't set it up. ask somebody okay hopefully you will have somebody there to walk you through everything anyway, but maybe you won't I do remember when I was a dental assistant 15 years ago, there was nobody to train me because. My trainer she went on that leave early, so there was just nobody there was somebody helping me out when she could, but it was just very. I was basically self taught I had asked the dentist for a lot of things, but they don't really know where things are right because they expect the dental assistant to know so that was fun. You will probably have help so ask questions another thing that we expect of you is to show up to work, which might seem obvious it does to me but i've seen it and I guess it's not obvious. But show up to work with the clean ironed uniform don't show up to work in like a tank top shorts and sandals hey guys what's up. don't do that show up to work looking professional a lot of offices now, you do have to change into your uniform at work, so if that's the case. i'm not saying show up in a business suit and then get changed into your scrubs but look professional don't wear shorts and a tank top and. run in you know look professionally guys, please, we do expect that of you, another thing we do expect is that you're not going to rush out of the office when it's five o'clock. In the dental profession, if you don't know this you're in for a big treat not a treat. we're not a nine to five if your shift is nine to five it's probably 830 to six o'clock if your shift is 12 to eight it's probably 1111 30 till nine o'clock. we're not nine to five we don't just go by shifts, because if your patients behind during the day, if you are behind. You might not get a lunch you'll be behind and then maybe your last patient of the day, which always happens. They show up late and then they have to use the washroom so now you're 20 minutes behind. you're not going to cut their procedure short, especially as a dental hygienist it's really hard to make up time. Because you still have to clean all of the teeth it's not like you can say to them oh you were 20 minutes late so i'm not going to clean. 20% of your mouth we're going to do it next time you just can't do that believe me it would be nice sometimes, but you just can't do that so you're going to be behind. don't rush out of there and say okay guys i'm sorry I have to go i'll clean up tomorrow see you later. don't do that you'll be fired so fast what we want you to do, especially when you first start working in an office you're the new person. We want you to help people out okay literally don't make plans after work, at least not for a couple hours, we want you to. leave your room leave your space spotless clean up help sterilize items go to the front desk ask if they need help putting charts away I always used to do that. It doesn't matter if i'm a dental assistant doesn't matter if i'm a dental hygienist it doesn't matter if i'm exhausted i'm going to ask if they need help because guess what they're probably exhausted to. And they work at the front desk if they're the only ones they can't just leave so it's just nice to have help Okay, so don't run out of there, we do expect that of you. Another thing we expect of you is to I mean know the basics, of course, you know I said we don't expect you to know everything, but we do expect you to know. Basic things and we expect you to work at a good speed Okay, and I say this because i've worked in offices before where i've trained dental assistants dental hygienists it doesn't matter who it is. And if you're really slow that's going to drive us crazy we don't mean. We want you to rush through your patients, but let's say you're cleaning up the room setting up the room let's say you're even tearing down the room and. disinfecting disinfecting items if if you're doing this. i'm just wiping the table because i'm cool I got 10 minutes i'm good. We hate that okay wipe that table as fast as you can because that patients waiting we need to use the room. I probably have to use the washroom, you know get out of there, so I can help you and move on, you know don't take your time again you guys i'm not saying cut corners. And don't sterilize something because you're trying to be fast no but don't slowly wipe the table, you know look around a little. Be fast if you don't remember anything else that I said in this video, it is be fast and don't be slow okay. So those are literally the main things we expect from you we don't expect a lot on a side note we like it when people ask questions. Do not be afraid to ask questions, but let me add there's a time and a place if you're a dental assistant and you are assisting. With a procedure so let's say the dentist is taking out a tooth you're assisting you know helping then might not be the time to ask a book's worth of questions, because the dentist is trying to focus. they're taking out they're taking out a tooth that's pretty serious stuff they're not going to stop and be like oh yeah so you're asking about that patient this morning and why we had used a TOEFL myer and not a clear matrix strip I don't know I just made something up don't ask them then. um. During a procedure with a patient, because you have to remember these are patients, so they don't want to necessarily know that you're new okay so if you're asking a lot of questions. They might get concerned and think oh gee she doesn't know what she's talking about this is weird. But there's no harm and let's say the dentist is asking you for something and you just don't simply know where it is. say to them um you know what i'm not sure where that was moved to i'm going to go get. Sarah over there and i'm sure she'll be able to show me so you kind of have to do white lies a little bit, I would do that a ton of a ton of times. When I was a dental assistant if I forgot something which happened, which is so bad don't forget anything, but I would. I would be like looking for and then being like I left it in the other room i'll be right back i'm just going to go grab a quick thing because this one's too small, I think you want the bigger one I don't know I would just make something up. So, as I said before you guys it's okay to ask questions, but there's a time in a place let's say you're in the lunchroom hey why not ask questions the end of the day. don't hesitate to go to that dental assistant go to the dentist whoever and say you know, thank you so much, that was a great day, thank you for your patience with me i'm still learning I apologize. I did have two questions if you don't mind i'm just going to quickly ask them. Where does this go, or you know did I do okay with that procedure is there another way you like me to do things. Especially for dental assistants you don't know how the dentist likes to do things I was a dental assistant for a while. And I worked for I want to say for different dentists they were all different they all liked things a certain way you will learn. For dental hygienists it's a little different because we do sometimes throw you in there. Expecting you to know things okay because you work for yourself you're not setting up the procedure for the dentist. you're not getting the patient for the dentist you're getting the patient for yourself. you're setting up for yourself okay but still even a new dental hygienists, you will likely have somebody show you where all of the instruments are where the trays are where your room is. How they like you to bring patients back how they'd like you to exit patients that type of thing, you will likely have somebody. But so you might not be able to ask questions right away, but if you can't find something feel free to just kind of go into the whole area on area see who's not working and ask them for help, we don't mind asking questions, trust me. As I said before, don't be the first one to leave that that applies for any staff it's not a nine to five job. Ask people for help don't show up looking unprofessional that goes for any members of the dental staff. We don't expect you to be perfect that goes for dental hygienists as well, we don't expect you to be perfect, but we do expect you to ask questions, if you don't understand something. And we do expect you to not make the same mistake five times trust me i've made tons of mistakes oh my God I still make mistakes, let me tell you. But I don't make the same one, so I hope this helps you guys Thank you so much feel free to comment anytime ask me questions and I will answer you so thank you guys and have a good evening it's Saturday night enjoy and I will see you guys in the next one.