 Hello everybody once again, Andrea Mieske here. Here's another episode I just like saying episode of the day in the life of the dental hygienist now This could actually work for any dental professional dental hygienist the dental assistant even a dentist Okay, so I want to talk to you guys about what do you do? How do you handle patients or how do I handle patients when I get that? Maybe not a rude patient per se but that patient who kind of looks at you like I've never seen you before Who are you? Are you even old enough to be a dental hygienist or are you even old enough to be a dental assistant? Are you old enough to be a dentist? You know those patients I've had rude patients talk like that. I've had patients that aren't being rude, but they're just very inquisitive and they ask Silly questions as far as I'm concerned And I say that because I would never go to my massage therapist or a chiropractor or a dentist or a doctor and say to them Who are you? Are you old enough to be doing this? It's just not something I would do so I don't understand how people think that's okay now When I first started I probably didn't really like that question. I probably handled it a different way I started in the dental profession at age 19 and I would get that question almost every single time Because patients assume that you're young. You don't know what you're doing and they don't want you helping them They don't want you working on them I Don't know why but that's just what they assume or they assume that you are a student And they don't want a student working on them because maybe they had a bad experience in the past They had a hygienist who was too rough not rough enough didn't know what they were doing Who knows right but this seemed to happen to me a lot the other day So that's why I want to talk about it or I should say a lot Last week where now I start I've been in office where they changed over the owners This owner has been there for two years so long enough But the staff has changed a lot has nothing to do with the owner Let me tell you that okay Because typically if you go into a dental office and you know that the staff has been changed over a lot That is a bad sign. Those are huge red flags But in this case the owners amazing Honestly, I've been there about five months now. I think so I would know if the owner wasn't it was a case of the The staff before just had their own You know click if I can say that they were they all had a certain work Ethic that this owner didn't appreciate which makes total sense to me You know so just a quick example if I were to show up late every day and my boss would be upset But me showing up late, you know, I would I would be mad at the boss for showing up late not the other way around and I Would be thinking that the boss is being mean because she's yelling at me for showing up late, you know, I Shouldn't have said me because I don't want to confuse you guys. It's not me But this is just what happened with that office where the staff there had a poor work ethic the boss didn't like it and Said well you can continue working here if you want but you have to go buy my rules So they didn't like it and they literally all left like left at the same time And then she would get tense in because she couldn't find somebody good enough to work full time And that's just kind of how it happened, but I've been there for five months. I have been assuring patients I'm not going anywhere The other staff who actually started around the same time is me same thing We've all been there for five months now some even longer than me. We all love it there We're not going anywhere, but Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent but this could happen to you too So I do like to kind of talk about everything but we have patients and it doesn't just happen to me It happens to the assistant who's younger than me. I believe We have a floater dental assistant. We have a receptionist We have another receptionist who works there too So, you know, we have a lot of people happening, right? But we have patients that walk in and they either go whoa whoa every time I come in here There's new staff what's going on or oh, you look really young. Who are you? How to handle that like, you know what I mean? How do you handle that? So you might be wondering how so if I have a patient that Sometimes I go into the waiting room and I just simply call their name and they go whoa. Who are you? That to me is rude You know, how about you wait until we get into the back and I can talk about who I am How about you let me introduce myself that would help You know because that's coming if you weren't so rude and being like whoa, who are you who says that right? If I was the janitor coming in Saying their name and come on back. Okay, I might be a little bit standoffish, but I'm not going to be like whoa Who are you so how do you handle that right? So I bring the patient back, you know, and I say hi It's so nice to meet you you didn't give me a chance to introduce myself My name's Andrea I will be your dental hygienist for today and if they interrupt me at that point and and go whoa, okay No, I have seen so many people. I don't know what's happening. What's happening? Why is there so many staff here? What is going on? They're being rude. Okay, so I will respond Not rudely, but I won't be as nice as I would have been if the patient just simply said oh, okay You know, I was just a little not sure because it seems like every time I'm here There's somebody new so to that rude patient before who's like whoa. Who are you? You know, what's going on here? I will respond with Okay, well, I've been here for about five months now. I will be your dental hygienist for today I'm not sure who you saw before, but I believe that last hygienist I think she was the one who moved out of town and And the assistant you've probably seen the assistant to before she wanted to work less hours So that's why she's not here. So I will sometimes make things up But I do try to stick with the same story, right? I can't tell my patients Well, you need to calm down Because the last hygienist was useless and just decided to leave without giving the doctor any notice and the assistant well same thing she went on stress leave because she was late all the time and Yeah, the dentist got mad at her for not showing up some days and then she just stopped showing up, too You know, you can't say things like that even though you really want to trust me. I Tend to make things up if I tell a patient Yeah, if I tell a patient this person may have moved. I'm not sure She wanted to work closer to home. She wanted less hours. Those are all totally Legit reasons of leaving Okay, even saying well, you know what the other staff was just so close that once one person left You know the rest kind of left to sorry guys. I'm just gonna stop this for a second because my puppy's whining Sorry about that. I just kind of stopped the video quickly to let my puppy in Tom has left. So now I can leave the door open as I'm doing a video But you know, yeah, so feel free to make something up but keep the story straight though You know, like don't tell one patient. Oh, yeah, she moved and then tell the next patient Yeah, she's in surgery, you know, like trying to make things more believable and saying that you just honestly aren't sure Is a good idea But also there's nothing wrong with getting down to their level depending on the patient Like you will be be able to repatience quite quickly once you get started, you know If your patience not being rude, but they're just like, oh, you know what? Like I'm a pretty nervous person and when I see new staff all the time it makes me nervous So forgive me for asking you questions But it just kind of took me a back a little bit feel free to get down to their level a little bit and say, hey You know what? I totally understand. I see the same massage Therapist all the time because that's just who I like to see when they when they tell me that she's on holidays I don't want to see anybody else. So I will just wait. So I do completely understand I apologize for catching you off guard. We should have told you before you came in But you know, it's totally up to you if you would like to see me or not But just so you know, I will be here and I have no plans on leaving. I love it here This is like the perfect office for me and I just moved here So I will be moving away, you know So feel free to get a little bit personal with them and get down to their level and tell them you understand but for those rude patients who Will come on in and be like, okay I don't know who you are. You didn't even introduce yourself. I See new people all the time like why are there new people all the time? You know nothing about my insurance yet the last girl she knew everything, you know, just they're just saying stupid stuff Okay, I said it. They're being stupid If there are patients watching this awesome fine. No problem We are real people too, but I doubt that patients are watching a day in the life of a dental hygienist, but anyways But if you guys are if you are a patient perfect now, you can see that we are human too But anyway, so if you have a rude patient like that This is how I respond to that and I'm being honest But I have been working for 14 years now that I almost Have no filter like I should calm down sometimes, but you know what? What's the worst that can happen? Some people need to put people in their place, okay? So if I have a rude patient like that I will say to them Wow, so This last person who you really liked um, do you remember her name? They never remember the name. So then I will say oh well You make it sound like you've been seeing them for like 10 years, but you don't know their name Really like come on, you know, so I will be rude That to me is being rude but putting in nice like sugar coating over it But they can probably see right through me and then I will say to them And I want them to know that I'm being rude and then I don't appreciate it But I don't want it to be too obvious, right and then I will say to them Well, the last person didn't leave any note. So when I was asking you questions about your insurance It's because they left no notes. I used to deal with insurance companies every day. That was my job So I could help you maximize your benefits, but I can see that you don't want that But we're already 10 minutes behind because of this I might not be able to finish your cleaning today. Are you okay if we continue or I am totally fine If you would like to rebook another day and see another hygienist That's what I say and I am almost hoping that they will Rebook because I have no patience for rude people There's no reason for anybody to be rude at the dentist for a teeth cleaning If if I was performing heart surgery and they're like whoa, you're not my doctor I can understand them being a little rude. Yeah, right. It's a teeth cleaning. Okay But it does happen. So That's how I respond if you're new though I don't suggest you responding like that only because you might get in trouble But there's also no harm in responding like that. So maybe I take that back a little bit But if you guys have any questions or comments, please Comment below if you misunderstood something. Okay, but last but not least and sorry I've been trying to keep these videos short and sweet, but it's just so nice to talk to people, right? It's so nice to bet But yeah, so and but if they have the question or the statement of Oh, you're too young like who are you? I've never seen you before you look really young that I say to them Oh, thank you. I think I take that as a compliment, but I'm not a student I've been doing this for 14 years But if you are new and if you are a student, don't be afraid to say, oh Oh, well, well, thank you for saying I look young. I think Well, yes, I am a student, but I do have 200 hours of experience or you know, whatever I would love to see you today. We all have to start somewhere. I thought that you would appreciate that But if you don't then we'll just have to rebook your appointment for another day That's okay, too. Or if you're new say, oh, yes Well, yes, I have been working here for a couple months now, but I've seen about 50 patients so far I was the top of my class And this office here only hires the best of the best, but I totally understand if you don't want to see me Would you like to read book for another day because we don't have time it might be a couple months But it's totally up to you and then just please let the staff know upfront that you don't want to see somebody new Yeah, that's what I would do you guys. That's what I would do and it will happen It will happen So please if you ever come into a situation where you're like, oh shoot, I don't if I handle that right I don't know what you would say in this situation I'm not perfect by any means, but I feel pretty confident in saying that I've been doing this for long enough that I don't You know, I don't go home at night and then think oh my goodness I should have handled that differently that patient was awful to me Oh my goodness I just handle it how I handle it and I feel darn good about it afterwards. It's almost like When I get a rude patient, I kind of laugh inside and think haha You have no idea what's coming to you because I'm not going to take this from you. So That sounds So thank you guys for watching if you guys have any comments Please just let me know because I might run out of things to talk about I'm just going to talk about based on my Experiences and half the time when I come home from work. I'm exhausted So please forgive me if I look tired and I'm not making sense, but it's nice to talk It's nice to vent And when I was a student, I would have loved to see videos like this like real life Videos so if you guys need anything, let me know. Thank you for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one