Table clinics? Like doing random cleanings to walk in patients or showing
people how to brush and floss? Mhh, table clinics huh!
Those are some of the thoughts that crisscrossed my mind when the first year
dental hygiene students got an invitation to attend this year’s table clinics
held by second years by Dr B. I had no idea how it was going to be or what
it was going to be about. Whatever was going to make me miss my evening cycling
schedule had better be good. Luckily, it turned out to be way cooler than I
even expected.
Turned out I almost got late and so while speeding for the event; I got my
first slack of being a student hygienist. Saw the police officer when it was
too late and was doing around 45 in a 35m/hr. zone. Turns out I had my I love
Dental Hygiene badge which were handed to us during orientation and soon as he
walked to the window it’s the first thing he noted. I explained that I was to
college for an event. It turned out that his wife was an hygienist and that’s
how I got to go ticket free. Not without a stern warning though!
I met 3 of my classmates, Nikki Catherine and Mitchyl so I did not feel so
out of place. Turned out it was to be my best night in Fortis yet. I don’t want
to make this blog so long with gibberish so I will just go to the pictures and
short explanations. As you will note, Dental Hygiene is the only course in the world
where beauty and brains co-exist. And I did not say that the ladies doing
Landscape Architecture or Machine repairs are not pretty. No!
The table clinics as I later understood is where the future RDH's come up
with unique projects aimed at educating fellow students, Hygienist and
even dentists of the current trends and emerging issues in dental hygiene. I
planned to have a talk with Dr. B to get further explanation on the whole idea
of it but it was so self-explanatory and also ran out of time. But I
later realized how misconceived the job of dental hygienist is. Despite being
in the field as a student, I expected the clinic to be about cleaning teeth.
That being the case, you can only imagine how misinformed the general public
might be on the job of dental Hygienist. Instead I changed my view by the end
of the presentations and now in my mind I see Oral care educators, future
researchers and dental educators. In that just one and half hours, I leant more
than I learnt in any RDH magazines. It was easy, clear and very
presentable.
I was in luck to meet alumni of Fortis Dental Hygiene class 2007, Natalie,
who has been practicing in Erie since then and also Nikki who has been
practicing since 2011. Both say they are so happy they choose Fortis for their
education and that they could never choose another profession even if given a
chance to change. There was also a couple of marketers with their products
and I got to sample their (....Are you ready for this?)Cookies! I did not know
much about the tools they had but I talked to them and got the hang of how some
of them function. (Products will come on a separate post) Below are some of the
exhibits from the very knowledgeable, pretty and enthusiastic second year
students. I feel like this class preceding us has set such a high bar for the
class that just got in but time will tell.
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| Shannon, Anna S and Anna K can't emphasize enough on why hygienists need to practise preprocedural rinse. |
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| Alicia,Janelle and Rikki have the future on their sights. Welcome to the future! |
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| Taylor,Jessa and Samantha cautioned me against sneaking out of the US to go get cheap dental work in Africa!! The disadvantages of that are HUUUUGE!. Caution heeded! |
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| Lauren and Kathrine, first thanks for the dental shaped stress relieve tootsie! These 2 wonderful young ladies taught everyone how to practise proper ergonomics!(New word alert!) |
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| Allison,Stephanie and Kearsten had an important message for expectant mothers. Heard of something called pregnancy tumors and pregnancy gingivitis? Probably not, you might need to book an appointment with these ladies! |
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| Nicole and Jenna have their eyes set on educating the wold on how to lock the monster Alzheimer's down. Great job ladies! |
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| Ali and JennKenn believes in the adage that natural is the best. And what could be better than going natural, dental-wise?! |
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| Sirena,Hannah and Alexandra are not missing a beat because of being the last in the list because they know they are not the least! Did you know there's a direct relation to your heart health and your oral health? No? You have to learn how from these ladies before you miss a beat.! |
