 Hello, everybody. Andrea here with Dental L. Let's talk about how to prepare for your first day at a new job in a dental office. So whether you are a dental assistant, a dental receptionist, a dental hygienist, this basically applies to everybody. So how to prepare? You need to know what the uniform is, meaning do they have a lab coat for you to wear? Are you going to wear scrubs? In the pandemic, you're likely going to be wearing full PPE, especially if you're a dental professional working in the back. So maybe there is no uniform. You will be getting changed when you arrive there anyway. So I would definitely check what the uniform is. If for some reason you can't get a hold of the office and you just simply don't know what the uniform is, then I would wear scrubs to the office and bring another change of clothes just in case, maybe another pair of scrubs or something else in case you do still need to change when you get there. A lot of the protocols now, are you wear whatever you want when you get to the office and then you will have a space to change into scrubs, but then you do still have to wear PPE per patient. So the gown, the hair cap, all of that. So check if you can what the uniform is. Another way to prepare is I would bring a little notebook, like I actually have some. I would bring a little notebook like this, nothing too big. You can't really put it in your pocket. I don't think unless you have a lab coat, I can put this in my pocket, but I would bring a notebook and a couple pens. So that way you can take notes as you go along because your first date on the job, you might be shadowing somebody else, but more likely you will be thrown into work right away. So you want a notebook in case you want to jot down quick questions or if you have questions to begin with, you won't forget, but do not hold your notebook like it's the Bible or something. Don't hold it like your life depends on it. Don't be reading it every chance you can. Don't be writing every chance you can either. This is just for if you have a free minute, if you're on your lunch, something like that, because you also don't want to be seen as that person who's just like writing, reading in her notebook the whole time. His or her notebook, you don't want to do that. So kind of use it lightly. Another thing that you need to prepare for is you should be able to ask questions. So don't feel like your first date on the job, they expect you to be perfect. Now this does vary slightly. If you are a dental assistant, I do feel it's more acceptable. If you truly, you know, you don't get right in there and do everything right away, because they kind of expect that there's other dental assistants there to help you and show you the ropes. And that's because every dentist is different. You cannot possibly know what the dentist is going to want for your amalgam procedures, crown and bridge, composites, anything. Every dentist uses different materials. So you're kind of lucky in that hopefully you will be shadowed by another assistant where you're going to watch them or you are going to do the work, but somebody will be guiding you along the way. Whereas if you're a dental hygienist, you are likely going to be expected to get right in and work right away. You won't have a dental hygienist showing you around. Probably not. In a dental office, there are not spare dental hygienists walking around. There's just not. So you likely will not have somebody showing you. So when you get there, the main things to ask for are where are your charts for the day and what room are you going to be working in? And also where are the instruments and your supplies? Those are the three things, the main things. The rest, you can kind of figure it out from there, or you can ask a quick question if you want. But at least if you have your charts, you have your room log into your computer, make sure that they do that for you. You know where your instruments and supplies are. You can basically go from there. Also look at the X-ray machines set up so you know, do they use phosphoric plates? Do they use sensors? So you kind of know how to take X-rays that way. As a dental hygienist looking through charts, I kind of feel that's another video entirely where you can check to see what that patient needs, that appointment. But typically if the front desk knows you are new to the office, another dental hygienist would have gone through your charts already and wrote in the computer what they expect of you. So is it a polish, a scale X-rays today for this person, the next person? Is it just a cleaning, just a scale for the next person? Is it a full peri-o charting? So hopefully they would have gone through that with you. If not, then you're just going to have to go through those charts and do it yourself, of course. But that's kind of another video for another day, isn't it? Because that's kind of a whole thing. Shoot, I just lost my train of thought. Oh, no I didn't. Another thing you should do is plan to arrive half an hour early. Half an hour early. But if you have a morning shift, I would check when the office opens. Because I've done this before where I will be keen, show up half an hour early. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. The office opens at nine. So I'm thinking eight 30 should be fine. But then the dental receptionist doesn't get there until five to nine. So I'm kind of hanging out doing a bunch of nothing. Not to mention you have to go in there and figure things out in five minutes. So I would ask when the office opens and when somebody will be there and when can you arrive? Because you're new. So you have to prepare for your first day at a new job at the dental office. Good luck. If this is you, please comment below. Let us know how you did. And I hope that these tips help you have a nice day.