Clinical Board Probing Secret
When talking game plans with students about clinical boards, I remind them to take the largest probe depth line-angle to line-angle on the buccal and lingual surfaces. When I do this, I feel like I am revealing some big secret because all too often during the exam I find that students go to the straight lingual/buccal and take a single measurement and call it good. Check out our latest video on what I mean by line-angle to line-angle HERE. Then go get those accurate probe depths!
Ultrasonic Water Trick
Tired of making a mess of your floor with the Ultrasonic inserts? We have 2 little tricks that may help!
Should You Be Charging For Oral Hygiene Instruction?
Two questions often asked about the D1330 Oral Hygiene Instruction (OHI) code are:
Should I bill for OHI and
Should I charge for OHI
There is a big difference in those two questions.
Let me address the should I BILL for OHI first. If you performed Oral Hygiene Instruction on your patient then yes you should bill it because we should always bill for the codes that we perform to prevent fraud and malpractice.
Should I CHARGE is up for debate. I would recommend having a meeting with your office to discuss if you will charge a fee. If it is decided that you won't charge for OHI then you can BILL the fee as $0. There is value in the patient seeing that the service was performed even if you didn’t charge a fee. If you decide yes, then set up a protocol for doing so when you BILL for OHI.
If you are going to charge you may have to beef up your OHI by doing the following:
make a diagnosis, inform the patient of that diagnosis, disclose (watch our video), get a biofilm index (watch our video), get a baseline of current habits, tell-show-do any habits you want to add to the regimen and then provide good documentation.
For example if the patient is diagnosed with localized biofilm induced marginal gingivitis, you must inform the patient of your findings, use a disclosing agent to show the patient where they have are missing, demonstrate the bass brushing technique then document what you did.
Delivering OHI may take about 10-15 mins of time. If you are taking that time, then charge for that valuable service. We shouldn’t base our treatment on what insurance covers, but depending on the carrier, OHI could be covered 1 time per year. What is your experine with the OHI D1330 code?
Nu Bird Suctioning Mirror Winner
Thank you to everyone for entering our latest giveaway, and to NuBird for the suctioning mirror!
Keep an eye on Hygiene Edge for other amazing giveaways and videos coming soon!
Want a Nu Bird Suctioning Mirror? Win it!
Wow. Some products come along that you dream about . The Nu Bird suction is one of those awesome instruments that is a big dental hygiene time saver . It is a 2-in-1 mirror and suction. Check it out in our video to see it in action.
Enter To Win One!
Let us know one of your best time saving tips by commenting below. The winner will be announced here on Hygiene Edge next week.
June 2017 Utah Central Component Meeting
Utah Hygienists!
Make sure you keep June 8, 2017 on your calendar clear. Jessica and Melia will be speaking at our local ADHA Central Component meeting in Provo all about Dental Fads: What You Need to Know. It'll be a fun event of interaction, learning, and tons of giveaways (because who does't love a giveaway?!)!
RSVP today and see you there!
Need Free CE Credits? Look No Further.
I'm not going to lie. I love CE's. I love going to classes, learning new ideas, and being inspired. Even with my love of classes, I've still found myself scrabbling for a few extra credits right before license renewal. After having my daughter, getting out of the house for a couple days or even a couple hours is tricky! We've compiled a list of websites so you will never get find yourself in that situation again!
Before taking any online course, I would recommend contacting you State Dental Licensing Board to see their regulations on how many online credits you can take for each renewal period, how many have to be in different topics, and if "live" classes held online can count toward your "live" credits for renewal. Each state is so different, so always double check. To make it even easier, sign up for CE Zoom to help track your credits and to have them double check to see if they're count!
Dental Care by Crest is regularly adding new classes to their long list. These are self study courses, so if you are an audio learner, this might not be the best option for you.
Colgate sponsors live webinars a few times a month. What I love about it is they vary times. Lots of webinars are always held at the same time (8 PM eastern) which doesn't always work for my schedule. So, having them mix it up with times, even having some during the day for hygienists outside of the US, is great! Sign up for their emails to keep updated on their class schedule.
Viva Learning offers several live classes a week, plus keeps these webinars on their website to watch later. This is one of my favorite websites for both dental and dental hygiene topics. Their classes are always 1 hour long and require a little quiz after the webinar is complete.
Hu-Friedy offers classes both on demand and live. Sign up for their emails to know when the class live classes will be held. I recently watched one on subgingivial air power polishing that was very interesting.
These self study courses cover a varitey of topics. One that caught my eye was "Successful Appointment Transitions for the New Dental Hygienist".
Though most of their CE's are paid, they will sometimes offer free classes. They also have great articles to keep up with the latest in dental hygiene.
American Eagle offers a 1 CE credit course on instrumentation and offer it regularly. Keep an eye on their website to find out when the class is held.
Good luck getting that CE, guys!
Where are you favorite places to get CE? What has been your favorite class recently?
You May Forget Things You Learned In Hygiene School
There are a lot of things from hygiene school that I have suppressed, purposefully forgotten or just don’t utilize on a daily basis, therefore I have forgotten them. I know that the hygiene students reading this may think that that is unfathomable right now as you have to know and memorize EVERYTHING. In the case of the G.V. Black classifications, I honestly only remember/use class 5 (V- caries at the gingival margin on the facial or lingual of a tooth.) This is because the dentist, while diagnosing, will have to distinguish caries in the buccal pit vs. the margin for digital charting.
For now though, dear hygiene student, you will see those Black Classifications in several of your courses as well as on boards. Below are several ways to help keep them in your mind until the day you may no longer need them at the tip of your tongue.
G.V. Black Classification
Class I (1) Occlusal areas and buccal/lingual pits (Anterior/Posterior)
Class II (2) Interproximal (Posterior)
Class III (3) Interproximal (Anterior)
Class IV (4) Interproximal including the incisal edge (Anterior)
Class V (5) Gingival margin facial or lingual (Anterior/Posterior)
Class VI (6) Cusp Tips
Mnemonic to Remember
RHYME
Class 1 (1) HOLE IN ONE
Class 11 (2) ALL THE WAY THROUGH
Class 111 (3) NO INCISAL FOR ME
Class IV (4) INCISAL MORE
Class V (5) CERVICAL DIVE
Class VI (6) CUSP TIPS
Visual Learners
Study Tips
Write it down
Say it out loud
Point to is as you say it
Make flash cards
Teach it to someone else
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
Needle Safety With a Needle Card Protector
When creating the video below on safety card use for dental injections, I came across a website called oneandonlycampaign.org. They run a campaign for all health professionals about injection safety. It was a good reminder about the risks we take each day in our profession and the importance of keeping yourself healthy and safe. If you have ever been stuck by a contaminated needle or sharp instrument, you realize instantly the potential severity of the situation. I encourage you to not get lax with your safe injection practices so you can have a long and healthy career and life. I would recommend reviewing your practices in an upcoming staff meeting soon.
Over Your Dental Office Music? We Can Help.
Tired of your regular old music that you listen to each day while you work? Or if you use the radio, having another dental office's ad come on while you're in the middle of a procedure? We can help! We've made a Spotify playlist for your office! We'll regularly update it with new music so you never get bored.
As an added bonus, we've made an RDH Pump Up playlist! To get you ready for a busy day. Listen to it while you're getting ready, commuting, or even as you set up your operatories before your first patient arrives.
Find us by our username, Hygieneedge, or at the link above!