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Short Commentary: Do You Know What Your Hygienist Knows?

Do You Know What Your
Hygienist Knows?


“Most of the treatment we offer and information disseminated to our patients is generated from hygiene.” 		After attending a CE course for hygienists, Dr. Michael Glass posted an open letter on Hygienetown.com to dentists about the value of the dentist/hygienist team.

I suggest to every practicing dentist with a hygiene department that you make a conscious effort to share in your hygienist’s educational efforts. Whether you have a one-person part-time position, a multi-staffed mega hygiene department, or somewhere in the middle of the two extremes, you need to get in touch with what your hygienists’ know. They know so much it is incredible, and the average dentist only touches upon the recognition that they deserve.

How many of us truly cherish what our hygiene departments have to offer? Most of the treatment we offer and information disseminated to our patients is generated from hygiene. And some of the most intriguing conversations about the clinical interactions with our patients’ needs can be generated with our hygienists – if we strive for that interaction to occur.

All too often, a hygiene check is idiomatically simple. We pop into the hygiene room after the hygienist has kept the patient interested and occupied for several minutes while waiting for us. We listen as the hygienist lists the recent pocket measurements and any obvious signs of dental pathology and we routinely review the patient’s oral cavity for anything that might need fixing. Then the dentist thanks the patient and the hygienist and moves into some “real” treatment in another room. Meanwhile we have lost the opportunity to interact with the hygienist and the patient, building the relationship with the patient and more importantly the opportunity to experience what the hygienist knows and how it was presented to the patient.

We feel, of course, that we already talk with our hygienists regularly. We tell our patients that whatever the hygienists just said is right, and we agree with all the salient points they offer to the patient. But is this really sharing our combined knowledge for the benefit of the patient and the growth of our relationship-based practices? How can we share our knowledge if we never gain that knowledge as a team? We must also put into perspective the time spent in a hygiene course as it relates to time spent in another more clinically appropriate course. Is the time spent at a course dealing with issues we consider to be hygiene matters worth the lost revenue from not being in the office? The question boils down to how much of the relationship we build with our patients is spent as the doctor and how much is as the technician.

Naturally, each of us must decide how we divide the time we spend in our practices, our continuing education and our personal lives. We each must take stock of the balance necessary for our own fulfillment. I have come to the realization that a few minutes of discussion with the hygienist and the patient sharing information on the same level, can be very valuable when building those relationships. It is likely to promote our hygienists as partners, helping patients obtain excellent oral health that the entire team has developed, based on information gained and disseminated together. Attending a seminar or presentation and gathering information jointly with our hygienists enables us all to stay connected and truly know what our hygienists know!

To read the entire letter, log on to www.hygienetown.com, click on “MESSAGE BOARDS” and type “Do you know what your hygienist knows” into the search box on the top of the page and select the board titled “Do you know what your hygienist knows.”
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