Interview a Health Professional

Health Professional Interview

Name: Meridith Davis

Position: Dental Assistant Teacher, Works at Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center

Education: Bachelors in Dental Hygiene, Minor in Psychology

 Questions:

What inspired you to get into Dental Hygiene?

As a child, She had  a lot of orthodontics complications. She spent a lot of time at the dentist and orthodontist. Watching the interactions between the staff was comforting .  When she went home after school she didn play kickball with the other kids, playing dentist was fun to her.

What was your path to your current job?

Had  two phases of braces between 3rd grade and 10th grade. She went to college at Old dominion University. While in school, she worked at a dental office as an assistant. Went to dental hygiene school and graduated in 2001.After graduation ,she worked as a private practice hygienist.From 2001 till 2005 worked at Dr.Pool’s office( DEntal office in vVirginia Beach). In 2005, worked at Dr. Warnick till 2018. In 2018 , applied to the Tech Center for the teacher position for the dental assisting program.She currently works at the Tech center.

What were the basic roles and responsibilities ?

• Patient assessment
• Patient education
• Non-surgical periodontal therapy
• Patient evaluation: Making sure the treatment plans were working for the patient, if not the treatment plans were revised.
• She also had to prepare for patients and clean after each appointment.
• What was your favorite aspect about the job?

Her favorite part of the job was communicating with people. The relationship formed between her co-workers and the patients were her favorite things about the job. She communicates with her old co-workers still to this day.

What is the most surprising aspect of your career?

Turning to education after being in patient care for so long, it was a drastic change. Teaching a group of twenty students  everyday was different from cleaning patients teeth the whole day. It was a new experience that she enjoyed.

What was the most challenging part of your career?

 The most challenging part of this was the physical toll on the body.The long hours of sitting (bent over) cleaning patients mouth was hard on the body. The job was not challenged mentallay compared to the physical aspect of the job. In the beginning it was difficult, but the boss (Dr. Warnick) was very kind and made it easier to adjunct the office. Of course there were challenging patients and the frustrations of wanting to handle stition with a patient differently was challenging , as well.

Any advice to someone getting onto the field? Never stop going to school. If you think you want to be a hygienist, be a periodontist. Stove to be your own boss.Once you stop going to school and making money it is really hard to stop the bills.

Conclusion

Overall, It was nice to have the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Davis. It was interesting to find out that we have similar reasons as to why we wanted to go into dental hygiene. Something that I learned during this interview was that over the summer, Mrs. Davis was tempted at two different offices for about ten days. It was nice to know she was still counting to be a hygienist and a teacher as well. She expressed the exploration of the different fields of dentistry and to strive for the highest level job available in the dental field. I enjoyed interviewing Mrs.Davis and appreciate the advice she gave me.