 Hello everybody, Andrea here with dental L. I have been in a dental profession for about 17 years now. I've worked in dental offices, but now currently I have my own mobile dental hygiene practice and I see clients in my own home. Also, I have a dental chair just over there, so it's fantastic. But what I want to talk to you guys about is being a dental hygienist in Ontario, so specific to Ontario. We have different rules, regulations than the states, than let's say Manitoba, we have different things. So I want to give you guys a good recap of things that you need to be aware of. Whether you're a new dental hygienist, you're just fresh out of school, you don't know the rules yet. You know, yes, you learn them in school, but it's different, it's easy to forget. So I'm going to go everything with you kind of step by step. But also if you're moving from another province and you're like, okay, I'm moving to Ontario, what do I have to know? We are definitely more strict, okay, than some of the other provinces out there. So that's what I'm going to talk to you guys about. I do talk about a lot more inside my full course. If you do need specific help with that, please reach out to me anytime because there are differences. As an example, if you're moving from the United States, you're going to have to take our Canadian board exam, okay? If you're still within Canada, you do not have to take another board exam, but you'll need to be aware of certain processes that we have. So just a quick recap here. So in Ontario, we have a quality assurance program. So we are audited a full audit every four to six years depending on our registration number. It's a full audit. So meaning when we get audited, it's chosen at random, but everybody gets audited like within six years. I've been audited a few times already. I've been doing this for 17 years, but they just started this program. I want to say 10 years ago. Maybe longer, but when you get audited, you have the choice of submitting your professional portfolio or taking the quality assurance exam. The quality assurance exam is similar to the board exam, but not as difficult, but you have to answer questions of your knowledge of being a dental hygienist. I do have a full prep course on that, so don't worry. Don't stress about that yet, but I can help you if you need help. But or you will submit your professional portfolio. So what is that we have to maintain courses we have to maintain our continuing education by taking courses, going to classes, you know, learning new things, they can be all online so it doesn't have to be in person. You don't have to take certain classes, but we need 75 hours every three, three years so it could be 75 hours in one year and then you're fine for two years, but it has to be at least 75 hours of courses that we have to take. Yep. So I have to take a test when I get audited for 20 years. Having that said, though, I guess I shouldn't roll my eyes. I take courses all the time, but I'm a nerd. I love to take courses. A lot of you guys probably aren't nerds like me. So having to think, wait a minute, I have to take a test when I get audited. If you've been a hygienist for 20 years, that probably scares you, right? But again, you guys don't worry, I can help. In Ontario, you can be an independent dental hygienist and that means you can have your own practice without working under a dentist, but there are many different rules and regulations concerning that, whether you're a sole proprietor, whether you're incorporated, I could talk about that for two days. But again, this is a recap video you can be your own boss, which is fantastic. You do have to take those certain courses. You have to register with the CDHA to be an independent dental hygienist. You have to confirm everything with the CDHO. That is our governing body, the CDHO, the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario. You have to be a part of them in Ontario. We have yearly fees. They seem to go up every year. Right now it's about $430. I'm a specialty though. So another thing that I want to say is you can be a restorative dental hygienist, meaning you can place composites, a meldom, braces, temporary fillings, Glass Eye Onmer. Again, I could talk about this for two days too, but you can be a restorative hygienist in Ontario, but you do need to take a course in order to do that in college. Another course that's offered right now to be a restorative hygienist is in Toronto. So feel free to look into that or I can help you. But if you're a specialty, you pay a specialty fee every year. So I'm a specialty. So I pay a little bit more. If you're incorporated, if you do have your own dental hygiene business and you're incorporated, you pay more with the CDHO every year. Here, they just love us, right? But if you're just moving to Ontario, I feel like that would be very overwhelming for you to think, oh, I can have my own business. Let me focus on that. First, let's get you here. Let's get you settled. Know the audit process, that kind of thing. Here in Ontario, you can work for a dental office when you're applying for a job. What I want to know is if you are registered, you need to be registered with the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario to work in Ontario. And you also need to be a part of either the CDHA or the ODHA. So there's two. The CDHA is the Canadian Dental Hygienist Association. The ODHA is the Ontario Dental Hygienist Association. You need to be registered with the CDHO always because they're our governing body. But then you have to be a part of either the CDHA or the ODHA. That just gives us the additional insurance that we need. It has benefits for us, like member benefits, courses we can take, but you have to be a part of that. I forget the price on that. Could be 200, could be 300. I'm not sure, but more fees we have to pay. I know. But those are, I would say, the most important. I do offer more inside this course if you feel like you're like, okay, I'm confused. I'm scared. What do I do? Where do I go? I need help. Then feel free to sign up for my course down below where I have many, many videos going through everything for you. The auditing process. How to start your own mobile dental hygiene business or how to have your own practice in your own home. I talk about all of the fees you have to think about. I talk about the rules and regulations working in a dental office. Certain paperwork you have to sign. You need a standing order policy. We need to be aware of client specific orders for X-rays. We need to be aware of what we can sign, what we can't sign. Here in Ontario, it's very much the dentist does certain things, the hygienist does certain things. We do work together, but we can't overlap on a lot of things or you can get in a lot of trouble. I talk about water line maintenance. So when you're working in a dental office, you have to know how to run the water lines, disinfect, how to do culture testing for the water. It's not like that everywhere. So this might be new to you. I talk about handpiece maintenance. We have to take apart our handpieces, the high speed, the slow speed, sterilize them. I talk about infection control. So how we sterilize things are different. You might not be used to putting your instruments items in pouches. You have to wait for them to be quarantined before you can use them. Or there's certain called Class 5 indicators that if they're in the pouch, you can use right away. You guys, I can talk about this for hours. I won't because it's going to overwhelm you. But if you need more help, sign up for the course down below. I have everything for you. It is constantly updated. So it's not as overwhelming for you. I know if I was a dental hygienist from another province moving to Ontario, I would want to know everything so I don't mess up. You don't want your license taken away. In Ontario, you guys were extremely strict. No joke. It's a good thing, but it's also kind of hard for us too, right? Like I feel like we're being watched 24 seven. But let me help you so you don't have to worry about it. So comment below if you have any questions. If you're moving to Ontario, welcome. This is exciting. If you're a new dental hygienist working in Ontario, welcome. Let me help you. Okay, you guys, thank you so much. And I'll see you guys in the next video.