Episode 15 - Dental Hygienists Month

This episode we're celebrating Dental Hygienists Month and all the important contributions these professionals make at for our patients.

Transcript

Kevin (Host) (00:41):
The tokens here on 1 0 3 9 W s o S. Hope you're having a good day so far. Eight minutes after 11 o'clock. Gorgeous weather out there, right, Dr. Michelle?

Dr. Michelle (00:50):
It is beautiful.

Kevin (Host) (00:52):
Dr. Michelle DeFelice Hucke is with me live here on the radio. She, of course, the proud owner of Jack's Beach's Family Dentistry. You can learn more by going to the website, which is

Dr. Michelle (01:02):
Jacksonvillebeachdentist.com

Kevin (Host) (01:06):
This month, the month of October. Of course, there's a lot of things we acknowledge during the month of October that tries to bring awareness to various health issues, but one of those is dental hygiene and specifically it's dental hygienist month.

Dr. Michelle (01:20):
You know how I found that out?

Kevin (Host) (01:21):
How'd you find that out?

Dr. Michelle (01:22):
You told me.

Kevin (Host) (01:23):
No way. Really? That's scary actually.

Dr. Michelle (01:26):
Well, no, we always have a note of when Dental Hygiene Day is, which I'm assuming is sometime this month,

Kevin (Host) (01:31):
But I did

Dr. Michelle (01:32):
Not know that they had a whole month as that, an entire month. I thought it was just a day.

Kevin (Host) (01:40):
Well, I thought it was interesting.

(01:42):
It gives me a reason to go on to the Google machine, and I typed in dental hygienist. The first dental hygienist was named in 1906.

Dr. Michelle (01:53):
Oh, wow. That's cool.

Kevin (Host) (01:54):
In Bridgeport, Connecticut. A dentist there, Dr. Alfred C. Fones. His assistant was Irene Newman, and he decided that he would train her not just to handle the books and that kind of stuff. He said, Hey, I'm going to train you to scale and polish teeth.

Dr. Michelle (02:10):
He was way before his time.

Kevin (Host) (02:13):
How about that? Huh?

Dr. Michelle (02:14):
That's amazing.

Kevin (Host) (02:17):
So for a little while after that, for a year or so, he would call her

Dr. Michelle (02:21):
Glad he was crazy.

Kevin (Host) (02:23):
Well, and he would call her his dental nurse. But then after a couple of years, he said, you know what? I'm going to call you my dental hygienist.

Dr. Michelle (02:31):
That is so amazing. That guy was way before his time. Isn't that amazing? That's so cool. Yeah,

Kevin (Host) (02:37):
Because you think about it back then, Dr. Michelle,

Dr. Michelle (02:39):
There was no prevention back then.

Kevin (Host) (02:41):
Well, and the patients were coming to him on a horse, a horse-drawn car. I mean, there weren't that many cars then,

Dr. Michelle (02:46):
Right?

Kevin (Host) (02:47):
I mean, half the patients probably were horse-drawn

Dr. Michelle (02:49):
Carriages

Kevin (Host) (02:50):
And he knew to have it done.

Dr. Michelle (02:51):
Yeah. If you had me try to guess the year, I would've been like, I don't know, 1961.

Kevin (Host) (02:56):
Yeah. I would've guessed maybe the fifties or something, somebody, but yeah, how about that?

Dr. Michelle (03:00):
But yeah, I mean flossing and prevention and all, not gum care. None of that was happening back then. So good for him.

Kevin (Host) (03:07):
Well, and the other key thing is that he figured out, of course, I was looking also on some other stuff that the Google machine had, and you have to go back to 1850 to find a doctor dentist that figured out that plaque and tartar was bad. Yeah,

Dr. Michelle (03:22):
No, I know. That's what I'm saying.

Kevin (Host) (03:23):
So it wasn't all that long after

Dr. Michelle (03:25):
That,

Kevin (Host) (03:26):
Right?

Dr. Michelle (03:26):
Yeah.

Kevin (Host) (03:27):
So I guess back in the 17 hundreds, we always think about, most of us think about George Washington and his false teeth and how that was rough on

Dr. Michelle (03:35):
Him, bless his heart.

Kevin (Host) (03:36):
So I guess we can assume that during the 17 hundreds, especially American Revolution and all that, you were getting all this plaque and tartar buildup on your teeth. Nobody knew to get rid of it, and that's what caused all these problems.

Dr. Michelle (03:49):
And people died so young too, though. There's that.

Kevin (Host) (03:53):
There is that.

Dr. Michelle (03:55):
Yeah, but no, I'm shocked about the early 19 hundreds because when my dad got out of dental school and he started trying to talk to the local dental society about gum care and periodontal prevention, periodontal disease prevention, and the local dentists thought my dad was cracked in the head.

Kevin (Host) (04:18):
Really?

Dr. Michelle (04:19):
And actually one of them tried to get his dental license removed.

Kevin (Host) (04:24):
Wow.

Dr. Michelle (04:25):
Yeah. And that was he, I was born his freshman year, so he graduated in whatever, 1968, 1969, something like that. So yeah, it's really just been the last 50 years or how 60 years

Kevin (Host) (04:42):
Dr. Michelle is with us. If you're just hopping in your vehicle and you say, what the heck are they talking about? Now we're talking about dental hygiene and specifically dental hygienists because it is dental hygienists month. So flowing forward from Dr. Fones naming Irene Newman, the very first American dental hygienist, not too long after that, Connecticut in 1917 became the first state to licensed dental hygienists. That's pretty quickly. That happened

Dr. Michelle (05:09):
Fast. I'm flabbergasted by all this. That's great. I mean, I think it's amazing and it's awesome.

Kevin (Host) (05:14):
So in this day and age when the dental hygienist is cleaning our teeth, like my hygienist Emil does at Jack Beach's family Dentistry, what sort of background and training do they have to have? I mean, to get to do that, I really don't

Dr. Michelle (05:28):
Know. It's generally a two year degree. Of course, this is me talking as not being a dental hygienist. So if any dental hygienists are listening, I'm so sorry. It's a two year degree. I do think there are some prerequisites that they need to have prior to going to dental hygiene school. But the basics are it's a two year degree, and then there is a board exam that you have to pass so that you can get your license. And one thing that was pointed out to me, because I do a lot of presentations is one of my presentations not that long ago was about why do you get your teeth cleaned and what's the point of being under the care of a dental hygienist? Because a lot of people are like, well, I already cleaned my teeth at home. Why do I need to come in?

(06:18):
One of them, which was surprising to me because a dentist, when I shared it with people, they were like, oh my God, I'm so glad you shared that. I had no idea why I go. So a lot of the listeners out there, just for your information, this is just like a news flash. The reason you go get your teeth cleaned is not to actually clean your teeth like the top parts of your teeth. The main reason for teeth cleaning is actually gum therapy. So what you're really doing is keeping your gums healthy. The main thing that the hygienist is doing is not cleaning the tippy tops of your teeth that you can see. They're going into the pocket, and first of all, they're making sure that the pocket depths haven't increased. The pocket is the area between the top of the gum and the base of the pocket, which is the bone, basically where the bone is, and that's holding your teeth in.

(07:11):
So the reason we measure that is we don't want that to increase the depth of that pocket. You also can't maintain those pockets at home, even if you're flossing every day, which only 9% of Americans actually do on a daily basis. So that's the reason to get your teeth cleaned. The reason that we sometimes recommend people increase the frequency of their cleaning with their dental hygienist is if we're noticing that their pockets are increasing. If we're noticing they have inflammation of their guns, if we're noticing all of that, and pretty much no matter what the hygienist does, it's increasing or your periodontal disease is getting worse, it's important that you come in more often so that we can get a handle on it ourselves. Because whatever you're doing at home is just not enough.

Kevin (Host) (08:05):
Hey, if you're just tuning in, that's the voice of Dr. Michelle DeFelice, and of course she's the proud owner of Jack's Beaches Family Dentistry. You can call them locally to schedule your initial consultation, an appointment, start getting ready to get your teeth cleaned at 2 4 7 0 1 1 1. That's 9 0 4 2 4 7 0 1 1 1. I also saw when I was looking at the Google machine about dental hygiene that a lot of dentists are recommending three times a year.

Dr. Michelle (08:33):
So a lot of our patients, once you get over the, I started, once I got over the age of 40, come either three or four times a year. That just increases the number of times a year that all of the tartar is removed from down in the bottom of the pocket up along the root surface. Also, a lot of people like to get the stain polished off their teeth more than twice a year. I mean, especially me, I drink, I have one cup of coffee a day, but it stains seems to stain my teeth faster and faster all the time. So yeah, a lot of people like to come in just because they like the way their teeth look afterwards

Kevin (Host) (09:11):
Or if you like to eat blueberry pie every day.

Dr. Michelle (09:13):
Yeah, whatever, it's red wine, tea, coffee. All the things

Kevin (Host) (09:18):
I have learned from Dr. Michelle over the years, years and years ago, do not swirl my coffee inside my mouth.

Dr. Michelle (09:24):
No coffee.

Kevin (Host) (09:25):
Swallow it.

Dr. Michelle (09:26):
Yes, coffee is very acidic If you're going to consume coffee, I do. It comes out of the microwave or the coffee maker, it comes out hot. Just consume it while it's hot. Eight ounces of coffee should only take you 10 to 15 minutes to drink it. Please do not

Kevin (Host) (09:43):
Gargle with it.

Dr. Michelle (09:44):
Don't sip at it for hours.

Kevin (Host) (09:45):
Yeah. Well, that's a tough one.

Dr. Michelle (09:47):
I know.

Kevin (Host) (09:48):
I see people all the time

Dr. Michelle (09:49):
In the office setting to language over it and then they drink it all day. So the problem with, I know I'm sounding kind of snarky, but the problem with sipping at anything acidic is that as your teeth are sitting in it and it's increased the acidity of your entire mouth, it takes your mouth 20 minutes to recover from that. So every time you take a sip, it takes yet another 20 minutes for your mouth to recover from that acidity. So then people say to me, well, can I just rinse with something after? Well, you could, but your teeth are still sitting in the acid for two hours. So I always say the best diet for your teeth is three short meals a day with water in between. So anytime you're varying from that, you can kind of just picture that in your head. Any variance from that is increasing the likelihood you're going to have decay.

Kevin (Host) (10:47):
Very good. We're spending time with Dr. Michelle DeFelice Hucke, and we're celebrating the role of dental hygienists and dental hygiene and how we of course want to keep our teeth our entire natural lives. Dr. Michelle,

Dr. Michelle (11:00):
That's the goal.

Kevin (Host) (11:01):
That is the goal, and they'll help you fulfill that goal by going to Beaches Family Dentistry. Call him locally. (904) 247-0111. The number again, 2 4 7 0 1 1 1. We'll be back my eyes now I big song from the Pointer sisters from back in the day. We're excited. Dr. Michelle Lee sucky is here with us live in studio, and of course we're talking today about dental hygiene, dental hygienists who of course are at the forefront of making sure you have good dental hygiene, but there were some other points you wanted to make, right?

Dr. Michelle (12:25):
Yeah, I just wanted to talk about their role because they do so much in the practice that they're the ones that really spend time with our patients when they come in every three, four or six months depending on their gum disease status. But we were talking earlier, the main thing they do is work to be sure that patients' gums are as healthy as possible and then obviously pretty up and polish the top parts of the teeth. But I really do wish it was called something different than teeth cleaning. So in our office, we do call it a wellness visit because of all the different things we do, we definitely do a really thorough review of their medical history, make sure their medical history is updated, and we support people in being sure that they're seeing all different wellness providers that would help them to stay as overall healthy as possible. That's one thing that the hygienists play a big role in. We also have a lot of technology to document where people are they coming from and making sure that going forward as we're documenting things, we aren't seeing all the different parts of their dental health deteriorating. And then we take a lot of photographs to explain and educate people so that they can see what's going on. Because it's one thing to be told what's happening with your health, and it's another thing to be shown it so that visually people can see their own mouths

(13:54):
And then they work together with us to be sure that when we see the patients on our side, that we know what's happening with the patients.

Kevin (Host) (14:03):
That whole notion of imaging and getting for us as patients to see what's going on in our mouth, I mean, that has changed dramatically in 30 years. And now in my experience with Dr. Michelle and Emma, my hygienist, they were able to show me in 3D HD imagery, the fact that my fillings were becoming problematic in my teeth. Now that's all been fixed, but when you can actually see it yourself, it's a little bit easier to accept. Right.

Dr. Michelle (14:30):
Well, it's important for you to know what's going on and not have it inflicted on you because no matter what treat journey or treatment that we're walking through with the patient, everything goes better. If it's being done together and both people, the provider and the patient know what's going on and they're accepting of it, nothing goes well if it's inflicted on someone.

Kevin (Host) (14:58):
Yeah. Well, you immediately get your dander up and so, well, it's all about getting to a better place. It's all about making sure that you can keep your teeth for as long as possible and also make sure that what goes on in your mouth doesn't cause you any pain or discomfort, encourage you to learn more. They have a great team of hygienists at Jacks Beach Family Dentistry. I'm not sure if Emil is seeing anybody other than me. I guess he is.

Dr. Michelle (15:24):
You're a full-time job.

Kevin (Host) (15:25):
Yeah, I guess he is. No, he's great, but they have some other great hygienists there as well. Learn more by going to the website. You can get a sense of what they're all about too by checking out the website. Jacksonville beach dentist.com, right?

Dr. Michelle (15:38):
Yes.

Kevin (Host) (15:39):
Follow them as well on Facebook and Instagram. Lots of stuff there that give you a sense of the practice. And of course, you can always go old school. Pick up that phone, Dr. Michelle, the rotary dial phone and dial (904) 247-0111. That's 2 4 7 0 1 1 1. Even more astonishing, a live human being at the practice will answer the phone, maybe even Britny.

Dr. Michelle (16:04):
Absolutely.

Kevin (Host) (16:04):
Yeah. And if you get Britny on the phone, say, Hey, we talked about her on the radio 2 4 7 0 1 1 1. Dr. Michelle, thank you very much for coming by. We appreciate you as always.

Dr. Michelle (16:15):
Absolutely.