Hygienist Case Study

I job shadowed at the Hartford Dental Clinic on Wednesday, November 11th from 8:00am to 12:00pm. I shadow a very nice lady named Julie Ernster. Julie has worked at the Hartford Dental for about 13 and half years as a Dental Hygienist. Julie had attended USD and in 1998 where she got her Associates degree. At the begging of my job shadow Julie showed me around and showed me were they clean and sanitize all there tools. Next I was introduced to Dr. Mattheis. He was very nice and super busy. He had a few minutes to tell me about how he worked at the Naval Dental Clinic in Long Beach California for three years.. I thought that was very interesting that he was a dentist in the Navy. Julie began to set up her little work space for her first patient. She laid out all the tools she …show more content…
She placed the tools into the machines and began to sanitize them. After the tools were done in the hot water sanitizing machine she then laid the tools out onto a metal traded and placed it in an oven like machine where the tools would be cleaned for about 2 hours. Julie’s next patient came for a check up. He told Julie that he had cracked his tooth over the summer. Julie was very considered and that was the very first thing she looked at. Julie used a small circular tool with a mirror on it to look at the cracked tooth at every angle possible. I watched Julie clean his teeth and remove plaque. She than have Dr. Mattheis come and check out the cracked tooth. Dr. Mattheis suggested that they fill in the tooth. I watched Dr. Mattheis put filling in the crack in the tooth. I asked Julie why she didn't fill the tooth in and she told me that “ Im a dental hygienist, we can only do certain task. If I wanted to do fillings and shots I would have to back to school for a few more years.” As the day went on I realized that Julie’s job is very repetitive. She does the same thing for all of her patients. After she cleans the teeth and check over the teeth for activities Dr. Mattheis than takes