 Hello everybody, Andrea Maeski here, Dental L Mobile Hygiene. So I have owned my own dental hygiene mobile practice and I go to nursing homes, I go to patients' homes and clean their teeth. So pretty much any dental hygiene services, I do dental hygiene exams, I do sealants, I do teeth cleaning, I do whitening, all kinds of fun stuff. But usually I love to go into the nursing homes and I remember getting started with that and finding a lot of things out that I did not know before, things I just simply wasn't aware of and things that I wish I had known when I first got started. So if you're one of those people who is looking into being able to go into nursing homes to clean teeth, this will be an excellent video for you because you'll be able to kind of hear from a real person who has been doing it, you know, the good, the bad, I mean not the bad, but just things that I wish that I had known and why it's really not as easy as people may think, but it's also not as hard as some people might think too. So let me just talk about this a little bit. So when I was a dental hygiene student, we had a class where we would go into different areas of the community and clean their teeth. Well, one of them happened to be going into a nursing home and it was a very negative experience and I'll tell you why. Because what we did, it was a group of us. So I'd say about 20 of us, it was a relatively small class because I think we went in groups of 20. All it was is we literally sat up in the community center that the nursing home had. So we had a table, we had, you know, packages of instruments to use for every patient and we had like a chair. So basically what happened was the residents would come in one by one. They would typically either be in the wheelchair or if they could sit in a plain just chair that they had in the nursing home, that's what we would do. And us as the students or my teachers who were dental hygienists, they would either stand or they would sit in a chair. So like, not an actual dental chair, but like just to sit in a chair so you kind of had to be twisted to see the patient. I don't even remember having a light. I don't remember having really anything, but we must have had a light because we weren't having able to see. So I'm really not sure. But the negative experience was it was just awkward and we didn't really get to talk to the patients. It was just kind of, my teacher would say, okay, you will not be able to get a lot done. You just pretty much look inside the mouth, clean whatever you can. You have about 20 minutes. You might be cleaning their denture. You're just kind of looking around the mouth. But it was just awkward because we had nowhere to put our stuff. We didn't even have a lot of stuff actually. So it was just kind of a waste because what can you do? How can you do a proper cleaning when you barely have a light to see? You have like maybe three instruments with you. A mirror, an explorer, like a sickle scaler, and that was it. And then you just did the best you could. So that was always the negative experience that I had going into nursing homes. And I thought, there's no way I want to do that. But fast forward to owning my own business, I started the business because I wanted to go into my grandparents' nursing home. So they've been in a nursing home now for a little over a year. And I could quickly realize that their teeth just weren't being looked after. My grandma kept having tooth issues. She kept losing teeth, which as we know, that's just not normal. So I wanted to go in there to clean her teeth, but I wanted to do it my own way. So what I do is, and I don't bring as much stuff as I thought I might need. So with my business, I do have like that full compressor unit. I don't bring that in because it's loud. And nursing home residents don't really want to hear that loud noise, right? So yes, I would love to have that because I can't use air and I can't use water or the suction without it. But it just works better to not have to bring that in because it's less stuff. But what I do bring in is I bring in like a big container with a lid. So I put my instrument package in there. I will put like a toothbrush for the resident. I'll put toothpaste. I'll put in the sunglasses for them to wear because I have a light on my loops. So that's awesome. That just helps me so much. What else do I do? I know I bring in more. I just can't think. I have to obviously bring in like masks, gloves, the wipes to wipe the area afterwards. I bring in a tray because sometimes there's a little table that I can use and sometimes there's not. So I bring in like a 1999 like foldable end table to put my instruments on. I don't bring in my piezo because again, I can't use suction. So it's just pretty much hand scaling and I do whatever I can, but that seems to be fine. So you know those like carry-on luggages? I just bring that and I put all of my stuff in there. So it's so, so easy. And that's what I do. Because before when I was thinking about it, when I see other patients at their home, like I bring my full compressor unit, I bring the piezo, I bring in like a foldable chair for them to lay on, I bring in my stool, you know, and I bring my stool into the nursing home too because that just kind of helps me maneuver around, especially a wheelchair, but it's not really needed because if you're seeing a patient in their wheelchair, sometimes you can't sit on the stool anyway, like it's better to stand. So it really does depend. But if you want to bring in even less stuff, just bring your carry-on luggage. And that's enough. And then maybe the stool in your other hand. So it's kind of hard to say. Oh, and the foldable table too. But sometimes I bring that in. Sometimes I don't. If I've been to the nursing home before, I kind of know what they have. If they have a table, then I don't need to bring mine in, you know, that kind of thing. But it does help to have a little table because you don't want to put your tray on the floor, right? Like you can't do that. If you're cleaning the teeth in the resident's room where you normally are, you might be able to put, like, your tray and stuff on their end table if they have one, but sometimes they don't. So just kind of things to think about. But typically you can't just walk into a nursing home and advertise your services. So the caregiver basically has to come to you to ask for you to come in, you know, because I would email nursing homes. I would call the nursing homes and say, hey, like I do offer this amazing service where I come in to clean teeth. Can I give you a pamphlet? Can I give you something to give to the caregivers? Because I'm sure if they know that this exists, then they will want this done. But they kind of said, well, we can't advertise a business. Like I guess they're just not allowed to do that. I don't know why, but they're not allowed to do that. So they say, well, we can't really advertise for you. So no, you can't bring in a brochure. So it's kind of like, well, how do they know I exist if I can't advertise? So that kind of, I didn't know that. So it's not as easy as you might think to get into nursing homes yet. I can tell you right now, everybody in those nursing homes needs their teeth cleaned and they will love it. But you have to advertise a different way. So that is something to know. If you call the nursing homes, they might tell you, oh, well, we have a dentist that already comes in. But nurses don't realize that the dentist does not clean the teeth. If they do clean the teeth, well, it's just better to bring in a dental hygienist because that is what we do, right? So I would have to tell them, well, that's excellent. I am so happy that they have a dentist that comes in. But are they coming in every six months to clean the teeth? I can get in there and do a deep cleaning. And I can teach you, I can even teach the residents in some cases if they're teachable how to take care of their teeth. So it's just another option for them. And I can guarantee you that my price is less expensive. So I do say that, too. I say, I offer a senior's discount. I am more than happy to help out people who don't have insurance, things like that, right? I let them know that I do submit to insurance companies. So I just talk to them, right? But another thing that you have to know is that if you do end up getting into a nursing home and seeing a patient or two, you always have to talk to their nurse first. So, or they might have several nurses, but make sure that you talk to a nurse first and say, hey, I'm coming in Thursday. Are there any medical issues? You have to pretty much talk to them about their medical history form. And the caregiver probably has to fill out the medical history form. But you would always have to ask the nurse of any updates. Because if you call the caregiver and ask them, well, yes, they should have some idea. But if they haven't seen the resident for a while, then they might not know. But the nurse always, always knows, right? Like they might say, oh, well, yesterday at lunchtime, your patient's a diabetic and they didn't eat their lunch. So we had to give them some more insulin or something like that. So always talk to the nurses first. You will likely have to fill out a consent form so that if you hear anything while you're there from another patient, you can't just talk to everybody else about what you've heard, you can't advertise your services, things like that they want you to fill out. So that is something to know as well. And just overall, you probably won't have your own clinical room to set up in. You will likely be setting up in the resident's own room. Sometimes there's not a lot of room. Sometimes there's a lot of room. You just never know. So keep that in mind that you have to work around what you have. Do not think that you're going to have a perfectly accessible patient. They might not be able to move back very well. So you will have to be hunched over for 45 minutes. Your back is going to hurt, that kind of thing. So I find nursing homes are amazing. I love seeing my patients in nursing homes, but you do have to plan your day. Meaning you would not be able to see 10 patients in a day because you will be so sore because it's a special needs case. So plan around that. You might only be able to see three people in one day because otherwise that would hurt your back. It really does depend on the patient. Sometimes the wheelchairs that they're in, they do move all the way back. Well, not all the way back, but they can be tilted back. Some of them can't. Do not hesitate to ask the nurse because the resident likely wouldn't know. I've seen some pretty crazy ones where I'm like, this is a really fancy wheelchair. I don't even know how to unlock it. I don't even know how to pull it back a little bit. Ask the nurse. Do not be afraid to ask. Sometimes you won't see any nurses around, seriously. So it's always good to let them know ahead of time when you will be coming in. Plus you wanna work around their lunchtime. You wanna work around when they eat. You wanna work around when they get their hair done sometimes, right? You wanna work around their bath time, you know? So check that out too. Like I find I don't see a lot of patients in the nursing homes in the morning because they might have a bath every other day or they might have a bath every day or even every two days, but you don't wanna show up and they're in the middle of that. You have to wait around for half an hour. You don't wanna do that, right? I mean, maybe you do, but maybe you don't. So always let them know before you're coming. If I forgot anything, let me know. Feel free to comment below. And if you haven't yet, make sure to hit subscribe because I do upload the videos often. I hope that this helped you because it is so nice to be able to work in a nursing home, trust me. It's the most amazing thing ever, but you will be a little sore. So make sure to do your regular yoga, you know? Things like that so you're not too sore. Okay, guys, well, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.