 Hello everybody, Andrea Maesky here with dental tutoring a day in the life of a dental hygienist Here is another video for you guys. So what do you do if you have a child patient? Okay? So let's just say under the age of 10 horrible oral hygiene The child could care less and the parents think the child is amazing and they don't think that they're doing anything wrong What do you do? Okay, so there's different levels of this I find There's the child patient who has horrible oral hygiene and the parent doesn't care there's another level where the child has horrible oral hygiene and The parents almost sticking up for them saying well, this is why we don't have time to brush morning or at night We are so busy He should be able to eat whatever he wants. He's sensitive. He's a teenager. You know, they just give excuses So there are different levels to this But how do you handle it? Okay, it's a very Frustrating because you almost feel like they're not listening to you the child and the parent But you also feel like your hard work isn't doing anything because you know as soon as they go home They're not going to brush their teeth for a couple days. So it's kind of annoying So let me talk about my personal experience a little bit So I'm going to talk to you about that that child who has horrible oral hygiene and the parent just doesn't care Okay, so let's just say the child's ten or ten or under. Well, no, let's say the child is ten Okay, so I'm just going to give an example Just comes in heavy plaque heavy stain and there is food still stuck in their teeth So they obviously didn't brush before they came Your you have had to polish first because there's so much plaque that you would just be cleaning and cleaning and cleaning So you might as well polish first, right? The gums are bleeding like nothing else and the patient the child might even say to you Ew, what is that? Ew, look, I need that like straw thing. It happens. Okay That's what they do. I hate that. I hate it. I hate it So this is how I handle it. So if I have a child patient who's like I need that thing I say to them. Well, it is your own saliva You can't swallow it, but the gums are bleeding a lot So if you taste that it's because you don't brush your teeth silly That's how I talk to them. It may sound weird. It may sound mean and may sound condescending. I don't care That's how I talked to them, you know, especially age 10. They're old enough now to understand Okay, seriously if they're for I get it. It's not really their fault It's the parents, but 10 come on. So I say to them like, okay I know you want the suction, but if I kept giving that to you, we would never be done So let me at least do the top teeth and then the bottom teeth. Okay Hang in there. You'll be fine. So I do talk to them like that seriously So if I'm polishing first then the gums are probably bleeding like crazy Um Yeah, so I get the teeth clean. Okay, the gums are probably still bleeding But even before I clean everything actually sorry, I just had a hair up here. There we go I do like to show them in the mirror So I take my explorer or just pretty much any Instrument because I find with the explorer sometimes if I pick up plaque It just kind of falls off. So I wanted to stay on the instrument Let's just say they have a lot here because that's always easier to show I will have them hold them The mirror I hold down their lip and they look I Take off the plaque and I say look see this like white stuff. Ew, right? This is on your teeth from not brushing if you just simply brush it off It does come off But see how thick this is and look at the gums. They're bleeding like crazy. You're way too old to have this That's what I do. And then I take the mirror away because at that point they're probably like oh Or I don't really care or who knows right? So I clean the teeth, but then afterwards like I'm talking to them the whole time by the way So I will say to them things like okay, so you have a lot of plaques So that like white stuff that I did show you earlier. That is food. That's bacteria and yuckiness. Yes That's what I say Um, all you have to do is brush twice a day and that takes it off You know and things can tend to smell pretty bad too. So if you never noticed that That's from the plaque sitting there. Yes, I do say that. So I don't tell them a smell But I say things can smell pretty bad But the best thing is and the nicest thing is that if you start to brush every day twice a day That won't happen. Your teeth will look amazing and there will be no Smell so I'll give you a pretty cool toothbrush today. Use that and that really really helps You know just saying things like that Seems to help it may not get through to them But eventually you hope it will plus if the parents in the room, which sometimes happens Show them in the mouth how bad things look and say to them say, you know Mike needs to brush twice a day because I am worried that this plaque sitting there Eats away at the enamel it does and then as soon as it eats away We can't bring back that enamel. So make sure that he's brushing every morning every night for two minutes It does help to set a timer, but two minutes the parent may not care But that's the best that you can do. Okay, talk to the parents if they're in the waiting room I do prefer to talk to the parents or the parents back in the room Sometimes I can't always do that if they don't want to come back for some weird reason Then I talked to them in the waiting room But I prefer not to because there's there's usually people around and I wouldn't want somebody talking to me about my Kid in the waiting room because you know probably sounds bad me saying there's a lot of plaque there, you know, you So I like to have them come back if they're in the waiting room and I will talk to them saying, okay Like just so you know, there was a lot of plaque everywhere. He's not brushing twice a day He has to that plaque is just sitting there eating away and things can smell pretty bad over time When parents and patients hear the word smell They go, oh geez I smell or oh my kid smells I didn't say that but I said things can smell pretty bad, but the best thing is things are perfectly clean now Um He just needs he or she needs to keep up with that brush twice a day and floss every day It needs to be done now the gums are in bad shape So as they're flossing they will still bleed a lot But keep up with it though Don't stop because the gums have to toughen up so do not stop it will take a couple weeks I might even take a month but keep up with that because it's possible, you know Things will just get worse and worse and they don't like to hear the word gingivitis so use that word say they have severe Gingivitis so they have severe gum disease. They're way too young for this But the good news is always say that the good news is is that things are under control now But they need to brush twice a day and floss every day if they don't next time things will get worse And even like things will will become more swollen just use whatever you want to but make it sound bad because it is bad In my experience a lot of the times they don't listen it takes several appointments and then just one day Something clicks and then you see the patient and it's like oh my god things have improved It could be the age who knows right? But don't be afraid to keep talking to them every single appointment and be fun, okay? Um Yeah, I guess that's it with that one So if you guys have any questions about trial patients, let me know if you need help. I'm always here Good luck with your trial patients and parents that don't care. That's always so much fun, right? And I'll see you guys in the next one