Volunteering and being able to give valuable education is an essential part of  being a dental hygienist. It allows us a valuable opportunity to demonstrate our education by helping others in need. Dental hygiene is a discipline that is constantly evolving as a vital part of the healthcare field. Making appearing in various settings, from providing oral hygiene instructions at health fairs, visiting special needs homes, bringing service to those who may not have the access to care, and elementary school screenings to assess at-risk youth. Participating in these events brings more light to the roles of a dental hygienist, establishing the profession is a major key to the healthcare field. The rewards are exponential in promoting health, watching others accomplish their goals they have set based on the education we have provided. 

 

 

 


  • At my first school screening for community dental health, our cohort screened over 400 elementary school children, giving oral hygiene education, and preventative fluoride treatment. 

    • Being our first community event I did not know what to expect but quickly learned the dynamic of community events so much so that at the next elementary school screening I was schedule as a screener multiple times. I believe my instructor saw that I had the ability to screen thoroughly and efficiently and get to see a larger number of children.


    • This event involved teaching both parents and children proper oral hygiene and education at Kids Burbank Community Dental Clinic. This event involved a nice warm day setting up tables, tents, chairs, handing out oral care supplies and informing attending parents of proper care for their children and when to see a dentist and hygienist. 

    • This was my first of many community service events I attended through out my first year. I did not have anyone to watch my son so I did have to bring him, he participated in coloring and drawing and received a backpack from kids Burbank. Being dedicated to my family and education was perfectly demonstrated in this event as I had an obligation to serve the community and my family as well. I was able to incorporate some of the most important things in my life at this event with no excuses. 


    • Visiting the Lanterman Regional Center homes allowed my group to experience providing oral hygiene instructions for patients who have special needs. The outcome of this visit was to enable those with special needs that are able to be active participants of their oral hygiene care be able to understand some of what basic oral hygiene care encompasses. For those clients with special needs who are not self sufficient it was imperative to give oral hygiene care education to the caregivers who attend to these clients needs. 

    • Caregivers in these live in facilities have knowledge of care but not in depth oral care concerning specialized care of patients with prosthesis or patients who are at higher risk for development of oral disease such as diabetes patients, patients on medication that may cause oral side effects and patient who who exhibit oral pathologies.

    • Thinking back it was beneficial as one of the clients did not have any teeth, but this did not mean her oral cavity should not be cleaned, I gave careful instruction for using wash cloths or oral swabs to care for the edentulous patient. 

     

     

     

     


    • Our second screening for 200 elementary school children in order to provide preventative dentistry and caries prevention. I expected more kids and having done a large amount of screenings I again got into the flow of things and screened over 20 kids myself and recorded information for my partner. 

    • We traded back and forth between screening and recording information to maximize our capabilities. I quickly saw that we were in the zone and before you know it there were no more kids to screen. 

    • This event cemented our ability to be active participants in community dental health events and gave us a level of comfort necessary to be succsesful in providing preventative care. 


    • This portion involved developing a program to implement in a community setting.
    • With my ADPIE group we decided to visit and educate the caregiver at Marycrest Manor, a Nursing living facility catering to Alzheimers and dementia patients.
    • Reflecting on this project made me happy to be in a career that involves helping varying population with not only oral health but general health.  

    • In March we attended care harbor, which is an event that helps underserved populations. This was a 12+ hour even which we helped with administrative duties such as checking in patients and checking vitals for out of range vitals for more than 50 patients. 

    • In cases of vitals out of range we had nursing students who were re taking vitals and make sure patients were healthy enough to be seen by the dental students from Western University. 

    • the patients we saw at care harbor included homeless, LGBTQ+, lower socioeconomic, and patients with language and cultural barriers. Seeing these types of patients and giving them the opportunity to their given right as humans to receive health care made me proud to be in my profession and an event that I could volunteer for and give to those less fortunate or populations that are discriminated against. 


    • Elementary school screening- Jaoquin Miller Burbank: This was another elementary school screening involving placing of fluoride varnish and screening school children for possibilities of potential treatment being needed. 

    • Being our third screening event we again traveled in groups to an elementary school to do what we do best. It was a great reward to see what an impact we would be able to make and also see how oral diseases can affect not just adults but kids who are more vulnerable to development of caries. We saw more need for giving nutritional counseling in these cases where kids had shown more instances of caries through doing deft indices. 

    • Reflecting on this screening and deft index project I understood what it meant to do a formative assessment as I had been able to think critically through the deft index and see that the needs of this population relied more on nutritional counseling. 


    • Kids Burbank School Screening

      Mckinley Elementary- This was a bittersweet moment as we did our final elementary school screening. I had been scheduled as a screener for most of our school screenings as I had become quick and formed a method of being efficient. I was comfortable in being able to screen several children thoroughly in a timely manner. 

    • Mckinley school had a Spanish immersion program. My fellow classmates presenting and power point regarding oral health to the children did not speak Spanish and I saw the need for me to take a break from screening patients in order to participate as a presenter as well. I had to think quickly and translate the entire presentation into Spanish. As I received responses to my questions in Spanish I knew I had reached the class. 

    • Being multilingual and multicultural it was my pleasure to present in Spanish and encourage more multilingual and cultural representation to the children. 

    • Looking back at this screening I saw the need for learning new languages and learning dental terminology in many languages. I will be adding Armenian to my knowledge of dental terms as I already have some knowledge of Russian and Farsi dental terminology. It gave me a chance to expand my cultural limitations and embrace other cultures. 

     


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