Case Study: A Career As A Dental Assistant

Steve was at a regular dental care appointment nearly 20 years ago when he had a bad experience with a dental assistant that has kept him from making dental appointments of any kind for the last 20 years. Steve’s girlfriend’s father was a dentist and her mother was his dental assistant. Steve scheduled a typical cleaning with his girlfriend’s father, and then his girlfriend accompanied him to the appointment. During the appointment, the dental assistant was conversing with Steve’s girlfriend while treating Steve. While the dental assistant was using the saliva ejector as Steve was getting a filling, she became distracted by her conversation with Steve’s girlfriend and accidentally stuck the saliva ejector into the back of his mouth into his throat causing him to choke and vomit. Steve had already had some fears associated with dental appointments and had a very sensitive gag reflex, which magnified the negative effects of the situation. This experience has had a very profoundly negative impact on Steve causing him to have a general distrust of dental healthcare workers, so much so that Steve did not see a dentist for 20 years after the incident. …show more content…
Even though this mistake was made, most dental workers are very dedicated to their patients overall health and would not intentionally ever cause harm. As a Dental Hygiene student, I would tell Steve that we are given thorough instruction on patient-focused care to prevent bad situations like the one he found himself in. I would encourage him to seek continuous dental care in the future because he is not likely to have another experience like the one described above, and his oral health may suffer the consequences if he continues to distrust dental healthcare