 So are you thinking about becoming a mobile dental hygienist, meaning you're not going to work for a dentist anymore, you're not going to purchase your own standalone practice like a physical location, but you're either going to see patients in your own home. I can see patients in mine. I just have to quickly set up a couple of things or maybe you're going into nursing homes or maybe into clients homes. So let me talk about some of the most common concerns, things you've probably thought of and how to how I'm going to make you feel better. I love being a mobile dental hygienist. I can't imagine working for a dentist anymore. So one of them is usually how am I going to lug things around? Am I going to be exhausted where I have to lug everything somewhere? How long is it going to take me to set up? Is the compressor machine loud and are patients actually going to pay for that type of thing? So yes. So let me tell you, when I first started, I was exhausted. I'm not going to lie to you, but I wasn't in very good shape. So it did take me some practice to lug everything into the clients homes and to get the timing down pat to make less trips. Whereas the first time I probably made seven different trips to and from the car. I had things in different bags, some things in like a luggage bag, because I thought that that'd be easier. It took me probably 30 minutes to set up, 30 minutes to tear down. And by the time I set everything up, I was tired. And then I had to clean a patient's teeth. Oh my goodness. So what I suggest doing at first, if you can help it, never turn patients down, but maybe only booking one patient a day, you know, just until you get used to it, or maybe two patients a day. If you're seeing a patient where it's a family of three, I don't want you guys to turn those patients down saying, well, I only see one patient a day, but maybe only going to one household a day or maybe two a day at the most, because you will be tired and things are going to take you longer than you expect. When I first started, it took me 30 minutes to set everything up, whereas now it takes me 10 minutes. When I first started, I maybe made seven loads to and from the car, whereas now I make two at the moat, well, maybe three, depending on if I have my compressor unit set up or not. And a little tip for you, when I see kids, I don't set up my compressor unit, the air, the water, the suction. They are fine when I use my portable cordless polisher to polish their teeth and then they just spit into the sink. They don't mind that. So that saves me time and that saves me. I can get tired lugging that compressor back and forth because it is heavy. I'm not going to lie to you, but you get used to it. It's a good workout, honestly, but it takes time to get used to it. Practice makes perfect. Even practice doing it in your own house, load everything in the car, figure out how many bags you need, figure out what you're going to put in bags. Maybe you can leave stuff in the car. Maybe you have a bag of toothbrushes, toys, things like that. Maybe leave that in the car. And then what I do when I pack everything up and start loading the car, I then bring my toy box in afterwards because I find if I bring the toy box in first, kids are looking for it, they're rummaging through my things, which they really shouldn't be doing, but kids do it and they get too excited. So I tell them, if you do good, if your mom and dad say it's okay, I'm going to bring in my really special toy box afterwards, but I have to be able to count everybody's teeth and polish everybody's teeth. So you kind of learn things as you go along. I have a lot of tips inside my course, the Mobile RDH Academy. If you're not inside there yet, I have modules where I go through everything, these little tips that I will have for you, but moving on to the next thing. So people often ask me, well, Andrea, am I going to make enough money? You know, I have a full-time job at the dental office. Can I work full-time being a mobile dental hygienist? Am I going to make enough money? I don't want to lose money. What I did when I first started was I still had a job at the dental office, of course, but I did my own thing on my own time. So evenings and weekends, that is when I was a mobile dental hygienist. That's what I suggest doing first because it's going to take you time to build up your practice. Even when I moved provinces, I was very popular seeing patients every day full-time in Ontario. But then when I moved to Winnipeg, it took time to get my business going. Not to mention it took time to transfer my license and stuff over. I was not working for like eight months because it took forever to get things transferred over criminal record checks. Oh my goodness, it took forever. Maybe not eight months, maybe four to five months, but still, it just felt like it took forever. But don't just automatically think you're going to see five patients a day every day. That's not going to happen. One, because you're going to be too tired, you know, you have so many emotions, you're so excited having your own business, but it takes a lot out of you. Imagine your first day of school again as a child, right? It takes so much out of you. So you don't want to think you're going to be seeing five patients a day every day making so much money. That's not how it works. Do it on the side. And then once you feel like you can be busy enough, once I felt like, okay, I'm working at the dental office. I'm making less money. I don't like the hours. It's time for me to quit and have my own practice. The best thing you guys about having your own practice is the flexibility. If you don't want to work on Thursdays, you don't have to work on Thursdays. That's on you, right? You don't have to be like, oh, I got to talk to my boss. I don't want to work on Thursdays. I'm exhausted. I have kids. I have a husband, wife. I can't manage all of this. Having a day off during the week is the best thing ever. I think everybody should do it. At a dental office, I doubt they're going to allow you to do that. Maybe you don't want to work weekends. You have the flexibility to set your own schedule as a mobile dental hygienist. And on top of that, you pick what you're going to make. You're going to make more than $50 an hour working for yourself because you are billing the patient directly using the fee guide. If I'm seeing a new patient or a returning patient, I make at least $200, depending if it's a child or adult. A new patient, you are doing extra things. You might make $300. What if you have a patient who hasn't had their teeth cleaned in 10 years? They're going to need longer appointments and multiple appointments. That's more money. Anything is going to be more than $50 an hour and your mobile charge for your time. There's a mobile fee guide or sorry, there's a mobile code in the fee guide. You can charge for that, whether it be $10 extra. You want to charge to go to their house or set or $75. I believe in the fee guide, it's maximum $75, but I'm not sure. I charge $25 because that just makes me feel good. That's worth my time. It depends on how far I'm going to. If it's on my street, I'm probably not going to charge a mobile fee guide to be on or sorry, a mobile fee code. If I'm seeing five people, they live next door. You know, who knows, right? But if I'm traveling 30 minutes away, I'm going to charge more because it's more gas, more wear and tear on my car. But guess what? The patients are okay with that because they are so happy. They think it's the coolest thing that you come to them. So yes, you're going to make great money. Another question people typically ask is, well, Andrea, is it safe? Like I'm concerned going into a stranger's house. What I do is I have them fill out the medical and dental history and can send forms first. I send them the forms. I find, again, I might, maybe I'm jinxing myself, but I find if they're really up to no good, they're not going to bother with all the medical dental, dental history forms. I mean, who knows? But anyway, I have them fill out that ahead of time. So also, I don't have to waste 30 minutes talking to them about everything they do ahead of time. So I know they're serious, but I also always let somebody know where I am. And I actually have an app installed on my phone. It's called the Life360 app. It is free where people in my family can see where I am. So they know where I am at all times. And I have a thing where I let my fiance know when I'm arrived at somebody's house and I let them know when I'm done. If they don't hear from me for four hours and they know I'm just seeing one patient, they're going to start to wonder, right? So all of these safety precautions. But that is a risk being a mobile dental hygienist, just so you know, just as being a real estate agent is probably a risk showing people homes, just like being a police officer, you know, so you are taking a little bit of a risk, knock on wood, knock on my desk. I've been doing this since 2018 and never had an issue, but these are the protocols that I do follow. Letting somebody know where I am. I have the Life360 app on my phone. I can leave the link for you guys down below or just type in Life360. It's a purple icon here. Let me find it here for you guys. I highly recommend this. I wish I knew about it sooner. See you guys. It's this purple one here with the. Circularly things in there. So I highly recommend that and I feel safe. I feel perfectly fine. If for some reason I did arrive at somebody's house and I didn't feel safe or I had a weird feeling, I would just leave. You know, so think about that. Um, I would say those are the most common concerns. Money, safety, and this is going to exhaust me. Like, you know, lugging everything back and forth. How much stuff is there? Um, I talk about that more inside the course inside the modules if you want to learn more, but I hope this video helped. Let me know you guys if you have any questions. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you in the next one.