The person that I was able to interview was Riley Andrews. She is a current dental hygienist at Aspen Dental, near downtown Norfolk. The education that she mentioned getting included: Bachelors in dental hygiene, Anesthesia certification, CPR certification, Laser therapy certification, and her state licensure to start practicing. I was unable to obtain a photo of Riley to put in here.
When I asked what inspired you to get into your current field, Riley responded by saying that her mom was a hygienist and spoke highly of the career. She also said to be part of helping the oral crisis in America. When I asked her about the route she took, Riley said she went through ODU, excelled in her pre-requisite classes, maintained really good relationships with her professors, and had some dental shadowing hours. I then asked Riley to name her basic roles and responsibilities, in which she responded: Patient exams, checking for periodontal disease, removing plaque from teeth, educating patients, and patient teeth cleaning. Next, I asked her if her work environment was sustainable. She replied no, and that it was hard for health care because of all the plastic waste that they produce from having to use new instruments, gloves, ect. I then asked if she thought that it was important to have sustainable practices in the work environment. She said No, it’s important to try but there is not much you can do. She also mentioned that the health of the patient comes first and to keep them safe, they can’t reuse a lot of stuff that they use. After that I asked if there were any measures or practices in place to practice sustainability, she said no to that question. The next question I had for Riley was about the barriers to having more sustainable practices in the work environment, and she replied by saying that their biggest barrier is being concerned about the patient’s safety and health. After that I asked if she had any recommendations for more sustainable practices that could potentially be adopted in her own work environment. Her response was that she thought we could do more research on items that they use daily because most of them are thrown away. She also said to keep everything sterilized more often. I then asked what her favorite/most rewarding part of the job was, she replied with a short list that included: helping people, educating patients, building trust and relationships with patients, and having a massive impact on her patients lives. After that I asked what the most surprising aspect of the job was. Riley’s response was how uneducated her patients are on their oral health. After asking that, I asked her about the most challenging aspect of the career. She said having to be patient with difficult patients, and also the physical toll of the job is sometimes harsh. The last question that I asked Riley was about the advice she would give to someone that is getting into the health field. She gave advice regarding only getting into the career if you know you have passion for helping people because that’s what the job is about. She also said that empathy is a key thing to have when working in the dental hygiene setting. The last advice that she provided was to do heavy research on the career before you get into it, so that you will really know if it would be a good fit for you or not. After the interview, I thanked Riley for taking the time out of her busy schedule to allow me to interview her. One key thing that I took away from this interview was that one of the key things that come along with the dental hygienist job title is being able to educate your patients on oral health. I used to think that it was just about cleaning teeth and giving X Rays. I never thought about the educational side of the job.