By allowing hygienists to select and purchase products, a practice can take advantage of their hygienist’s professional expertise, answering important questions about what equipment is needed and how these choices will work best to treat patients. Here are three key considerations to make when selecting hygiene equipment.
7 Tips for Better Dental Handpiece Maintenance
Dental handpieces are hard-working tools with very delicate internal parts, which is why proper ongoing maintenance can make for the best possible performance and longevity. Here are a few ways to keep your handpieces in tip-top shape.
4 Tips for Building A Successful Hygiene Team
Dental hygienists account for, on average, 30% of a practice’s revenue and are an integral part of any practice. Here are four tips for ensuring a practice is making the most of its dental hygiene service.
A Hygienist’s Dream to build her own Studio becomes a Reality
In an update about her now finished dental studio, Irene Iancu explains how she made her vision of owning her own hygienist-run dental practice with a strong voice on social media come to life.
Educating Patients on the Importance of Oral Health and Routine Dental Care
Making sure patients are well informed of the importance of oral health before they even book their hygiene appointment can help curb anxiety or other barriers that may be preventing them from coming into the dental office. And with staff training on how to communicate key oral health messages with patients, the oral hygiene appointment can be the perfect way to build relationships and trust with patients.
A Safer Way to Polish: Splatter Guard Prophy Angles from Young Innovations
As dentists and hygienists question the use of ultrasonic instruments during the COVID-19 pandemic, they may also be looking for ways to eliminate or at least control aerosols and splatter. Young Innovations recently introduced the Splatter Guard® prophy angle, which nearly eliminates airborne particles during prophylaxis polishing. Whitney Howerton, MDH, RDH, gives Splatter Guard a test run.
OnTarget Highlight: PPE Adherence in the Dental Practice
A recent global health pandemic has brought personal protective equipment (PPE) to the public’s attention, but dental professionals have long been familiar with the concept of PPE. Despite this, many workers fail to adhere to PPE requirements because they find equipment cumbersome, uncomfortable or disruptive to performing tasks and communicating with patients and personnel. To remove these barriers, dental offices must supply PPE that maximizes ease of use, comfort and performance.
Failure to replace: Who pays the ultimate price?
The current recommendation for when to replace a scaler is when 20% of the instrument blade width or length is reduced or no longer the original design. But how long it takes for each instrument to reach this threshold is dependent on several factors. Deb (Hume) Brown, RDH, shares some of these factors and how a failure to replace instruments can affect the clinician and the patient.
Toothlife: A hygienist’s dream to build her own studio
As a pre-law student and tennis player, Irene Iancu never initially planned to go into dentistry. Getting hurt on the tennis court, combined with other life changes, led her to...
Common Hygiene Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Having a top-notch hygiene team is a wonderful thing, but assuming everything is being taken care of is a big mistake many practices make. In almost every practice we work...
OSHA and the Dental Hygienist’s Role
Established in 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) primary mission is workplace safety in all industries. While many of the OSHA regulations apply to dentistry, dental professionals focus...
Hygiene Goals Simplified
Every dental hygiene team member should have a productivity goal or target within the practice. What does this production goal represent? Is it a random number you come up with...
Why Sitting Is More Than a Pain in the Butt
You did it! You found yourself working in a profession that you love! Congratulations! Welcome to the journey of extreme satisfaction and the possibility of pain and suffering you never...
100 Years of Dental Hygiene
This year marks the 100th year of the dental hygienist. When I look at the profession today, vs. what the profession was when I graduated from Northwestern University School of...
Thank You Dental Assistants
How amazing are the dental assistants in your office? Next week is the 36th Annual Dental Assistant Recognition Week (DARW), and it is a great time to let them know...
Vision Enhancement
As the art of dentistry continues to advance, so are the tools available for you to enhance your vision, while also reducing the risk of discomfort or pain that can...