On October 31st, I talked to Susan Nelson-Kidd, who is a Registered Dental Hygienist for Doctor Carol Morgan. She has received a Bachelors in Dental Hygiene from Old Dominion University.  As a little kid, she was not good at taking care of her teeth and she was scared of her dentist. The practice she went to traumatized her with bad fillings, drilling in her mouth, and being numb.  Later on in life she felt that she wanted to overcome her fear so she attended a Dental Assisting course in 1978. She worked as a dental assistant for 20 years before she decided she should make more money for her family.  After she decided she wanted to make more money, she went back to school to start her prerequisite courses at Old Dominion University, applied to Dental Hygiene School in 2002, and graduated in 2004. Susan informed me that oftentimes dental hygienists will work at multiple offices, but she was lucky enough to find one office that hired her full time.  After 11 years of working with the same patient every month, he had to leave because he required more care. She stopped working at the office and started working at a different one. She didn’t love the office she was working at and coincidentally the patient she worked with for 11 years contacted her about an opening at Dr. Morgan’s office that might suit her better.  Three years ago today, she had an interview with Dr. Morgan, then a work interview to show off her skills, and then she was offered a job the night of the election.  

Susan has a history of dental assisting, so she helps out around the office more than a regular hygienist would.  She does routine hygiene three days a week, cleans up the doctor’s room and sets it up, writes lab slips and keeps track of them, organizes in the back, cleans the supplies, and also helps out as a receptionist up front.  On Tuesdays, she is specifically an assistant for the Doctor for temporal mangiberal joint (TMJ) problems. TMJ is when someone’s bite isn’t in harmony, so they get headaches. Susan finds many things rewarding about the job, but her favorite is cleaning a dirty mouth and teaching them how to keep it clean.  If someone has tartar, she is driven to remove it. She says that starting her career as a dental hygienist comes with surprises. The biggest surprise she came across was offices where the hygienists have a big role in sales. She didn’t want to try and convince people to buy things, she just wanted to help treat them to make them a better person.  The most challenging thing about her career is staying on schedule when people come in late. She’s still expected to do all of her cleanings, but with less time. She also states that older patients have difficulties laying back because they get dizzy, so it’s hard for her to see what she’s doing.  

Some advice that Susan gave for someone getting into the health field is to have patience with people, especially old people.  Sometimes their appointments are their only social time, so they will talk about their lives. She also recommends to develop relationships and get to know people because it makes the day more pleasant.  

Personally, something I have learned from this interview was to develop relationships with your patients.  I always thought that it should be kept on a professional level, but as a dental hygienist you get to see your patients grow up not being afraid of the dentist.