Senior Year Blog-Dentistry : February 2016

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

One of the best ways for a dentist to ease a patient's anxiety is through proper education to reduce anxiety and increase confidence in oral health.

One of the best ways for a dentist to ease a patient's anxiety is to be a dentist of good quality. (I will define good quality by what people look for and want in a dentist.)

List three reasons that your answer is true with a real world application for each.

People want a reliable and empathetic dentist they can trust. Before choosing a dentist many people will often meet with the doctor to get a feel of their personality.
A good dentist will be able to put more patients at ease because they will have all the good qualities a patient wants. I have read several articles about what qualities many people look for in a dentist.
Anxiety can be eased by a supportive and calming attitude. Many people with anxiety go to a therapist to receive help. A supportive and calming dentist will ease a patient better than a cold and unsupportive dentist.

My second answer is basically saying that a dentist will be able to ease a patient's anxiety as long as they encompass all the qualities that work best for making a patients feel comfortable.

Jennifer Chang, DDS

The most important thing I learned from this interview is that many patient's do have dental anxiety. I was able to hear from Dr. Chang about real life scenarios and ways that she, as a dentist, is able to help these patients. I was also able to hear some of the advice that Dr. Chang had to offer me regarding my project.

How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

My approach to interviewing has changed in a way where I am able to ask more specific questions. I am also more comfortable with interviewing than I was towards the beginning of senior project.

Link to Interview 3 is posted in Senior Project Links.

For my 30 hours of Independent Component 2, I would actually like to do what I had originally planned to do for my Independent Component 1. I would like to build a model of a human mouth out of paper mache, clay, etc.
I will meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence by taking pictures of my progress and keeping an hour log.
This will help me to be able to demonstrate the part of my answer about demonstrating proper oral hygiene. For example, how to brush and floss properly and what plaque looks like on the teeth. I would like to display this at my final presentation. This will help me make my explanations throughout my presentation more interactive and hopefully more interesting in my final presentation.
Link Posted

"I, Cheyenne Medina, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work."
My mentor, Chris Chen, DDS, and dental assistant, Julia Gaytan, at Puente Hills Dentistry helped me complete my independent component.
Senior Project Hour Log
For my 30 hours for Independent Component I completed more hours at Puente Hills Dentistry, where I did my mentorship. I thought this would be a good way to spend my 30 hours, because my essential question has a lot to do with doctor-patient-interaction. The office was the best place for me to observe this.

For the most part I was doing the things that I would normally do during my mentorship like watch most dental procedures and interact with the dentists and patients. This was significant to my project because it helped me to be able to further study and find answers for my essential question, "What are the best ways for a dentist to ease a patient's anxiety?".

This helped me understand the foundation of my topic by allowing me to watch doctor-patient-interaction. In my topic, I am focusing on a patient and how the dentist can best ease his or her anxiety. Many patients do feel anxious when going to the dentist and it is noticeable with many patients that I see that go into the office. Even the dentists tell me that they deal with anxious patients on a daily basis. This is so common and it is important to see what a dentist can do to help ease the patient and what methods work best and which ones don't.

I am most proud of myself for meeting the time requirements and being able to talk about all of the information that I wanted to present. I am proud of this because I was really nervous before presenting that I would either talk to fast or too slow and either not meet the time requirement or be cut-off for talking too slow.

What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation? Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component project?

AP
I think I deserve an AP. I think I met most of the requirements for a P, however I think that I showed concern with a effective and engaging introduction. I think I could have engaged my audience more at the beginning of my presentation. Also, I think I had a little bit of a struggle with my activity as far as making sure that things flowed smoothly.

I think what worked well for me was the amount of information I had within my slides. I think that I was able to pack enough informtation into my presentation without it being too overwhelming.

What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

I think I needed to pick an activity that is more engaging and something that requires the students to work with their hands more. Also, I needed to be a lot more organized as far as the activity went. I was really disappointed with my activity and the conclusion of my presentation.

"One of the best ways for a Dentist to ease a patient's dental anxiety is by being a 'good' Dentist.'"