 Hello everybody, Andrea Mayesti here with Dental Tutoring. So another, I guess, video of a day in the life of the dental hygienist. So if you haven't been watching them so far, just a quick recap. I just started doing this a couple weeks ago. So if you have been watching, there's not a lot of videos yet, but there will be. And let me know if you guys want to see these videos weekly, twice a week, let me know because I am happy to help. I work about twice a week, sometimes three at the most. So I always have something to say, trust me, there's always new patients, there's always new experiences and there's always new questions. So feel free to comment if you have any questions or if there's a video that you want to see. But I wanna talk to you guys about what do you do? If you see a patient who's been coming in, let's say for nine months for like 20 years or two years, five years, it doesn't matter. But they are used to coming in every nine months. But you clean their teeth and you notice there's heavy plaque, heavy tartar, the gums are bleeding like crazy. You do the probing and there's four, fives or more pockets. So that tells you initially, okay, the patient should be coming in every three months because there's a lot happening. So you might be wondering, okay, so why is the patient only coming in every nine months? There's a couple of things to have a look at, okay? So before you go, okay, this patient should be coming in every three months. Look at a couple of things first. Look at the chart. Check to see if maybe last time they had light plaque, light tartar, maybe for two years they've had light plaque, but today it's just crazy. So if that's the case, then today is just a special case, talk to the patient. Maybe they forgot their toothbrush for a month, who knows? But if it says, oh, they've always had heavy plaque and heavy tartar, why are they coming in only every nine months? So with that, at least tells you. So if they have always had heavy plaque and heavy tartar, then check the notes a little more thoroughly and say, well, did the patient say at some point they don't wanna come in every nine months, or sorry, every three months, that does happen. So if you see that somewhere in the chart where it says that the hygienist said maybe two years ago that you should be coming in every three months, but the patient said no, then you still want to talk to the patient about coming in every three months. Even if it says at every single visit that the hygienist said just a reminder you should be coming in every three months, I just have to let you know I'm doing my job. I know you said last time, no three months, you want nine months, no matter what, but I'm just letting you know in case you change your mind. Even if that's the case, you still need to mention it again, okay? Even if the patient says to you, listen lady, I keep telling the hygienist I don't wanna come in every nine months. Okay, so that, or sorry, every three months. That reaction is pretty stern, so I might wait maybe like a year next time or two years because if he gets upset, he might leave, right? And you don't ever want a patient to leave. But I would still say, you know what? I apologize for bringing it up again, but I just want you to know that things aren't improving and I'm worried about your oral health. Your plaque actually seems to be more, which isn't always your fault. You know, it probably is, but try to talk personally with the patient. Say, you know what? It's not always your fault. I'm sure you are doing everything at home that you can, but just some of us were unlucky and plaque formed so much quicker. Even I have my teeth cleaned every four months because I get a lot of stain. It's kind of embarrassing, but even if I came every nine months, I know that that wouldn't be good for me and I'm considered pretty healthy. But for you, you know, your pocketing is so deep and it's getting worse that your toothbrush just isn't able to clean in properly. And trust me, we do the same thing at every single cleaning, but we need to do it more often so that I am able to get in there more often for you so the plaque doesn't have enough time to build up to be this thick. But nine months is a long time for it to build up, build up and build up. And unfortunately that's not healthy for you. Plaque and tartar has a lot of bacteria and you don't want that inside your mouth. But more importantly, your gums are bleeding a lot and that's not healthy. Imagine if you had a cut on your arm and it just started bleeding and bleeding and bleeding and didn't stop. You would be concerned, right? That's what's happening inside the mouth. It's not stopping. But the good news is, you know, again, you know, act excited, you know, I mean, not excited but don't lecture them cause they don't like that. But I do always say, but the good news is I know that you would have almost instant improvement if you came in every three months. I'm not saying you always have to come in every three months, but I want to improve things. And then as soon as we do, then let's change it back to every nine months. That's totally fine. But I think we need to work a little bit harder to get things under control first. Stop the bleeding. Oh, that would be so nice. And then that's it. So you see how I kind of turn things around? After all of your hard work, your hard, you know, talking to them the best you can, they might still say, no, I think it'll stick with every nine months. Then you're probably thinking that was a big waste of time. Then say to them, okay, you know what? That's okay. But how about we revisit this next time? Cause I'm just concerned that things will get worse. Or how about, you know what? How about we see every six months instead of every nine months? How about we try that? And that might really, really help you. You know, keep trying. But then even if they still say, listen lady, I can't afford it. I don't have time or whatever. Let's stick to every nine months. Say, okay, okay, you know what? You have every right to say that, but please maybe brush an extra time a day at home. And I would suggest flossing twice a day. And that will help, you know, just try something else, right? But then if they say, okay, okay. Well, every nine months, okay, awesome. Then leave it at that. Make a note in the chart how you explained it. And then go from there, okay? That does happen. It does happen. So just try what you can, but make it personal too. Say to them, you know what? I totally understand. Even if they don't have insurance. Say, you know what? I totally understand. I did not have insurance for years. And it's like, okay, do you pay the mortgage or do you pay $200 for a cleaning or however much it is? I couldn't afford that $200 at a time. But that told me to really brush well at home. So I stepped up my oral hygiene at home because I knew that I couldn't have my T-clink every four months that I should be doing. So I maybe did it every nine months. I think I came every six months actually because I knew how important it was, you know? Even if you're lying through your teeth, okay? I'm sorry, I said it. Yes, I said it. I lied to my patients. Not a bad lie, but a lie saying, you know, I totally understand, you know? Try to go down to their level or up to their level or whatever, whatever. Saying to go down to their level sounds mean, but you know what I'm saying, right? So just try to talk to them as them and, you know, be a real person. Don't, you know, if we said to them, okay, you're an idiot. You have to come in every three months because if you don't, you're going to lose your teeth. That's unprofessional and nobody wants that, right? You could say, hey, you know what? I totally understand. I didn't have insurance for years and things were tough. Things were tough, but I'm worried you're going to lose your teeth. And that costs even more money because then you do have to get dentures. Dentures are $2,000 and they don't last. You need to get new ones every five years or so, depending on the person. You do not need a new denture every five years. You probably need a realign, but they don't know the difference, right? So just tell them it's a new denture and then hopefully that will make them think and then start taking care of their teeth. So as always, I could go on about this, but I'll stop the video here to just kind of give you some ideas of how to talk to the patient who just doesn't want to come in every nine months because there are, sorry, every three months I keep getting mixed up because there's many different reasonings but we'll stick to this one for the video. But if you guys have questions, please comment below and I'll see you guys in the next one. Thank you so much for watching.