I recently moved to a new area that is 90 minutes away from the dental office in which I have worked for 18 years. I found a position close to my new home, so I gave my employer, who recently purchased the practice, a letter of resignation…

The dental assistants I work with open the cassettes or take contaminated instruments out of the cassettes before they put them in the ultrasonic cleaner. I informed them that the point of the cassettes and the ultrasonic cleaner is to…

In an office I recently worked at, the protocol for pain control during scaling and root planing was to anesthetize the entire mouth before beginning therapy. Is this an acceptable approach?

How often does a patient's medical history need to undergo a comprehensive update?

I have been practicing dental hygiene for 11 years and am right-hand dominant. I try routinely to sit properly, adjust my body throughout the day, and use magnification, yet I suffer from right shoulder stiffness and sometimes pain by the…

Can dental hygienists recommend vitamin supplements to patients? Are there limits within dental hygienists' scope of practice on providing nutritional counseling?

I have more than 30 years of experience as a clinical dental hygienist in Massachusetts. I thought that diagnosis and treatment planning were outside of dental hygienists' scope of practice and that these duties were the purview of dentists…

I am starting a position in a practice that serves a large number of patients who are medically compromised due to infectious diseases. I know wounds and needle sticks that occur during dental procedures are a common avenue of pathogenic…

What is the best method for applying topical fluoride?

I often suggest to patients who experience mild sensitivity caused by at-home whitening treatment to reduce any excess solution in the tray by using a Q-tip to apply it directly to the teeth. For very sensitive patients, I also recommend…