Reflection On Observation Second Year

Observation can bring incite to many things that we are unaware of. Being able to observe a second year for an hour was a great learning experience for me personally. I got the privilege to watch a case study that my second year was working on and it was extremely exciting and helpful for me. I got to see how much I will learn and progress over the next year. This opportunity gave me the chance to watch her scale, see how she interacted with the patient using great confidence and professionalism, and also the chance to see some of the deep pockets that we are learning about in our Periodontal class. When watching my second year with her patient, I saw a lot of things I was yet to see before. With focusing mainly on calculus levels of zero or one, I haven’t had the opportunity to see anything that isn’t considered “healthy”. The patient that I got to observe is classified as having both calculus and periodontal levels of four; which was helpful as he had some deep pocket depths, generalized bleeding, and a large build up of calculus. According to Foundations of Periodontics for the Dental Hygienist, “healthy tissue does not bleed”, therefore it was clear that

Starting out in this program can be very overwhelming at times; however, being able to see how much difference you can make for a patient is worth it. One of the most important things that I learned from this opportunity is that prevention is a key aspect of good oral care. After seeing a patient who has extremely deep pockets, generalized erythemic tissue, and severe calculus build up, it is evident why it is so important to educate patients at a young age. According to Foundations of Periodontics for the Dental Hygienist, “ tools such as oral health self-evaluations distributed at health fairs or other events can be helpful in increasing the public’s awareness of the signs and symptoms of periodontal