 Hello everybody Andrea Mieske here with dental tutoring. So I've been in the dental profession for about 13 years now I think almost 14. I was a dental receptionist, a dental assistant, a dental hygienist and now I've been a restorative hygienist for three years So I've done it all. I've seen it all. I love it. I love the dental profession And you've probably seen those videos where they're doing a skit. Oh my god, they're hilarious I wish I could do that, but I don't have anybody here to do it with. I wish I could do that They're so funny, but basically skits of what patients say and do to us you guys and how we handle them I think they're hilarious because it's totally true stories Okay, but there are things that we want to tell patients that we wish they would know right so this video is for patients Although I don't see patients watching it watching my channel because it's a tutoring channel for dental hygiene students and dental Assisting students, but this is what we want to tell patients, right? So let me share a couple things on being truthful I'm being honest. Let's do it. Okay. So number one is we are real people. Us dental professionals are real People so you coming into your appointment and telling us Nothing personal, but I don't like you. So please just hurry up and get this cleaning done. I hate having my teeth cleaned Hurry up How is that supposed to make us feel? Oh, okay, great. Thank you for sharing. Let me clean your teeth now Let me spend an hour of my time working hard hunched over you have so much plaque so much charter It's taking time for me to get it off because those people that don't like the dentist They have the most plaque they have the most charter they have the most stain because they don't take care of their teeth That's why they don't like the dentist because when they come in or when you come in if you're a patient We have to work extra hard. So we don't like hearing that. We want to say Oh, gee things. Well, we don't we don't really like you to be here Anyway, because you're just giving us a hard time for all of our hard work What we want you to know is we love every patient We love the patients who have a lot of charter a lot of stain who have no charter who have no stain the easy ones We love that, but we love the hard ones too because it makes us feel good You know cleaning off that stuff from the teeth because plaque and charter hard was a lot of bacteria So us cleaning that off is amazing I've seen those before and the after pictures We love it because it shows what our hard work is doing Okay, another thing that we want you to know is if you have a lot of plaque a lot of charter Your teeth feel rough after we clean that stuff off if you say to us Oh my god, my teeth feel so weird. What did you do or oh my god? I have spaces in between my teeth now. Oh my god. What happened? You have spaces because you had so much charter. It was pushing the teeth apart Those spaces are because the charter is not there anymore. Okay. It's healthier us Leaving that charter there. You might think it looks better in some weird universe and then as cleaning it You may think that looks worse because there are spaces But you know what you're a lot healthier and that plaque and charter is gone So don't be concerned and if you have questions, let us know. We are so happy to help but don't automatically assume We did something wrong. Okay Every hygienist is different. Some of us are lighter-handed. Some of us are heavier-handed. I see patients who say to me You didn't hurt me. So you must be doing something wrong my last hygienist when I'm done my cleaning it hurts But that's what I want So, okay, so you want us to punish you and torture you that doesn't make any sense. Okay? I'm a lighter-handed. So when I clean teeth a lot of the patients say to me like wow, that was a really good cleaning I didn't feel anything that felt great. Okay, that's what we like to hear But at the same time if you have less plaque and charter It won't hurt for us to clean your teeth if you have a lot there We have to push a little harder. So it might be uncomfortable for you. It's not our fault It's your fault. It's your fault. If you just brush and floss and come to your cleanings It would be so much easier. It's like if you're cleaning your oven If you haven't cleaned it for 10 years, you're going to have to really scrub, right? I mean bad example, but you would have to scrub if you clean it weekly There won't be a lot to clean and it's a lot easier, right? If you're cleaning the oven like after 10 years You are going to be sore afterwards because you have to really get in there after a week You're probably not going to be sore because you just have to give it like a wipe probably and you're fine Get the idea. It's the same thing with your teeth patients also that say to us The dentist is telling me I need all of this work done. You guys just want my money No, if you have cavities if you need crowns if you need bridges because you let things get so bad That's not us wanting to get your money. That's us doing our job and treating you properly So patients that you know say things to us like oh well The dentist has taken another holiday. That's two holidays in one year. Oh my goodness Like he must need the money to pay for those No, he's taking holidays he or she because he works so hard He works 12-hour days to treat you and he's taking a holiday because he needs a break Okay, he needs a break from you guys It has nothing to do with needing money or wanting money or making so much money They can take holidays give me a break like that's what we want you to know We are real people. We like to take holidays. Okay. We're not just trying to make money from you, right? Like come on Another thing is when we keep you waiting five minutes when the patient waits We're not just hanging out in the back having a coffee. Okay We are behind because the last three patients were 10 minutes late So now we're half an hour late because when we get them in our chair We can't just hurry up and clean their teeth Cleaning's take the same amount of time if you have more tartar We need to spend 10 extra minutes to get that off. We do that so that we don't say to you I can't clean the whole mouth today. It's gonna take me 10 minutes But I don't want to run behind. So how about we rebooking back for 10 minutes We don't do that right? We don't do that. We do as much as we can for you not for us For you, you know, it's back-breaking work you guys. We have hip issues. We have neck issues We have you know, soreness. I'm actually doing pretty good because I see I'm massage therapists and a chiropractor and I work part-time So that helps but We're hard workers you guys so cut us in slack What else oh my god, there's so many things when you come in and see a hygienist that you haven't seen before and you say to them Who are you? I've never seen you before Did all social etiquette go out the window? How about saying hello? You know like how about saying hello and then asking oh, um, where's the hygienist that I normally see not Who are you? I've never seen you before Are you new? You look young Who says things like that series like you says that I've had patients say to me Who are you? How long have you been out of school for? I don't I don't want to see in a new hygienist I don't want to see a student. I Kind of take that as a compliment. Maybe I look young but still what I say to them is hello My name is Andrea. It's nice to meet you. I'm not new. I've been doing this for 13 years You haven't seen me before because I just moved from London I was in the same office for like 12 years 13 years until I moved here. So I'm not new Like what do you want me to say? But then I do also say newbies students new hygienists gotta start somewhere Give them a break, you know, they went to school for how long they've paid how much money? They're fully capable But anyways, so yeah cut us some slack. This will be the name of this video Cut us some slack. That's what I will do. That's what it will be Some other things if your teeth are so sensitive that you won't let us touch them Don't bother coming because I can't clean your teeth if you're doing this When I'm trying to clean your teeth, okay? If I'm in there with my mirror and Explorer looking around and you're doing this How is that supposed to help? How is that supposed to help? You know, we totally understand that patients are nervous But if you don't let us look we can't do anything if you're that sensitive And you should see a dentist that will put you to sleep to get your cleanings. But if you're that sensitive You shouldn't have to be put to sleep to get cleanings. I'm sorry, but you shouldn't it's not that bad You just have to give us a break but everybody has different pain tolerance So that's totally fine if it's been ten years since you've had a had a cleaning and you're that nervous We can put you to sleep for that, but then you won't have any plaque or tartar there, right? So if you keep seeing us, let's say every three months a little more often You don't need to be put to sleep because you won't have a lot there for us to clean and it will be easier for you So just keep that in mind, too You know keep that in mind If you're running late and you call us and say you're going to be 20 minutes late It's great to get that call But then we will probably have to rebook your appointment if you're 20 minutes late on purpose, you know We're going to have to rebook your appointment because then Imagine right those other patients when we have to keep them waiting 20 minutes. We hear about it all day We hear about it all day, okay? So when you're purposely late, like oh, I totally forgot about my appointment. I was at home I knew I was going to be late, but I thought I'd try anyway. Okay. That's purposely being late We probably won't see okay, but if you're one of those who is just late honestly, but you didn't need to it's like Oh my god, I was in a car accident. Okay bad example But if there was traffic things happen you guys we will do whatever we came to see you Which is why we're late because we try to help you guys as much as possible Okay, but if you're always late if you know show if you think that we're gonna call you constantly to book your appointment How about you being an adult and call us, you know, if you're if you're that patient That's mad at us and says I waited for a call for you guys to call me because I was overdue This is your fault. How is that our fault? You knew you were overdue. You were waiting for a call But you couldn't call us Hello doesn't make sense Another thing that really irks me actually which not a lot of hygienists agree with is insurance I don't have insurance personally. So I don't understand patients that come in We give them an estimate on treatment and their cavity was bigger than they had intended and They pay their bill and then go whoa, wait. This is different, you know This is more than what I had expected. I'm not paying this In what world do you get work done and you can't pay do you? Buy a shirt or get a shirt and then not expect to pay for it. It doesn't make sense, right? Estimates our Estimates, okay, we're not overcharging you on purpose if you wait six months to get your cavity filled It's going to be larger. So that cavity that we have estimated to be how much will probably be $60 more because it's larger How is that our fault? We do understand if it's larger more than what you thought pay it over time. That's totally Understandable because yes, it is larger. We had given you an estimate for a certain price You know money, you know is important if you don't have it You don't have it. We are happy that you came in to see us to get the work done But we can't pay you for your treatment. We can't do it You got a cavity in the first place because you didn't take care of your teeth. I'm sorry. It's true I said it if you don't brush and floss You're going to get cavities if you don't have insurance brush and floss more because you're going to get cavities If you don't it costs more right? So I don't understand patients that think that they don't have to pay for things because they don't have insurance I don't have insurance yet. I Value health care. You don't see me say to my massage therapist. I don't have insurance Why is it this price? Well because the prices are listed, you know, it's the same for everybody, right? So I don't understand patients like that if you don't have insurance take better care of your teeth So we don't charge you as much, you know, if there's more there if you don't see us on a regular basis We have to charge you more because we're spending more time. That's just how these things work Can't do anything else right now, but that was pretty good, right? If you guys have anything to add let me know But if you're a patient watching this again, probably not because I don't see a patient watching my channel Think about us. We're real people in a nutshell if we're behind Maybe it's because we use the washroom quickly for two seconds Maybe it's because we had difficult patients all day who were late. So now we're behind Maybe it's because we had to quickly eat lunch because we have been working for six hours We're starving and we need to quickly have like half a sandwich so that we can clean your teeth Maybe it's because the patient before you Was having a rough day and we have to play therapist I'm not just going to kick somebody out of my chair if they're having a rough day, you know saying like you know what? My sister passed away. This oh, it's been so hard, you know, I'm not just gonna say okay My patient's waiting. Sorry. It's been so hard, but can you cut this short and talk about this next time? It's not how it works you guys It's not how it works cut us some slack if if you think we're overcharging you for something We're not we're not just talk to us ask questions. We love questions. We don't mind Also, don't expect us to know your insurance policy. It's your insurance Policy, we don't know what's covered for you If you simply hand us your pamphlet with like eighty hundred pages We can't just read through it you need to read through it you call your insurance and say What am I covered for for cleanings write it down because we're not we don't know okay? There are some offices out there that do check insurance for you But come on cut us some slack, right? Like we would love to do it for you, but there's not enough hours in a day if we get it wrong That's on you because you should know your policy Um Yeah, we are real people. Okay. We are your daughter. We are your granddaughter We are your your wife, you know, we're real People we're your sister, you know, whatever right sister brother whoever male. I just female hygienists We're real people so Be nice to us because we're thinking inside our head how weird you are if you're not we're telling other dental professionals How weird you are we're human beings. So just be nice and treat others how you treat yourself Thank you so much for watching. I hope this was kind of fun for you guys to watch and if you have anything to add Let me know. Bye for now