Extraction of Current Hygienist

 

This week I resigned from my current Dental employment.


When pondering the most appropriate subject matter for my email resignation (not the way I would ideally like to resign but how it works in this practice!) I asked some advice from a fellow hygienist..turns out just like Harry Potter, there are many many dental puns.

'termination of employment'

'extraction of current hygienist'

'time to gap it'

 

'this tooths gotta go'
 

My hilarious friend Amanda aided in writing a whole new resignation letter for me...just from dental puns.

 

'it's all Wong for me here, I can't caries on like this, I've become abscessed with teeth and need to fracture our decaying relationship.

'I'm going to gum it down for you, I've become abscessed with teeth so I'm fracturing this relationship. You carie on without me, I'll be all white. I'll brush off all your tears and leave with my crown intact. To composite for my leaving, you'll have fun filling my position. 
Please don't polish off all my leaving morning tea before I get there or my veneer of composure will be eroded'

I'm leaving at tooth hurty this afternoon, hope you can fill the gap, see ya scaler!'

My Place of Schooling

Whitfords Dental Centre

So just before I get started in ranting along about what I get up to outside of school, I'm just going to clarify what my 'school' is. School is a place of learning and as a grown up we learn mon-fri at work, and luckily get paid for the privilege to do so!

Ten Things I Love about My New Job

1.     Bigger team – we had a staff training day yesterday and there was 18 people there with a couple missing.  So about 4x the size of my old workplace. And I get to work with another hygienist, which is great to have someone else to bounce ideas off.

2.     I get an assistant – which is such a treat. So my helper cleans up my surgery between patients and notes down what I talk to my patients about which gives me more time to focus on the part of my job which I love which is helping patients understand how to keep their mouth healthy and doing treatment.

3.     I get Mondays off, which means three day weekends woohoo. Although I do work alternate Saturday mornings, but that’s totally fine. They say a four day 37hour week is ‘full time’ for their staff.

4.     Which brings me to my next point; good management.  The management of the practice is just exceptional.

5.     I am not the youngest staff member.  All the girls that work with me in my room are around 21, which is great. Hard to explain why this matters but it makes it easier for me to be an assertive professional clinician.

6.     The practice just moved into a new building in January so it is really nice and fancy. My room is set up so great with new equipment. Which makes life much easier.

7.     Even though the building is new the practice is a well-established practice with a huge range of patients, which means there is variety is my work. On my first morning I saw literally the oldest patient I have ever treated aged 96, then later that day one of the youngest; a little boy who was only three.

8.     Which ties onto my number 8: I am constantly challenged. Working with different clinicians means learning how they like to work, learning new computer software, treating more advanced cases etc.

9.     I can play my own music. Which is fun, compared to my last job where the music was throughout the practice.  Its amazing how much it can lift your energy levels listening to relaxing (patient appropriate) music that I enjoy.

10.  For a very general last point to sum up why it has been so easy to settle into my new job at WDC; there is just a reallygreat vibe in the practice.  Everyone I work with is just really nice, has been really patience with me as I learnt the new computer software, and just so welcoming and happy.

These are my new work shoes which I love. Safe from hazardous falling instrument but super stylish too.

The fabulous dino puppet I have at work, which is a hit with the kiddies. It is a little creepy with its human style chompers - but they are great for showing the wee ones how to brush!

My New Ride

Relying on public transport is not something I did back in Auckland. I was inundated with transport options owning not only a car but also a scooter and a bike! 

Rachel and I outside the castle,
going for a bike ride back home.

My red ride bike
I had to leave back in NZ!

Over here I have got myself a sweet bicycle to ideally cycle me around everywhere. Unfortunately my work place is a little far to bike to currently but I can bike to the train station and go from there.

Double baskets!!

Notepad from Te Papa which I love!

Remember to give cyclists some space when your driving!

Your Smile Is Important to Me

Your Smile Is Important to Me - was my inspiration in trying to help share my wealth of knowledge on how to keep your mouth healthy to all those who are important to me in my life, and anyone else who is interesting in learning too.

I was lucky enough to have an amazing friend Olivia Coote who turned my idea into a really cute graphic so I looked real professional - and people asked if "your smile" was who I worked for! I replied  that it is just me !

Give aways from Oral Health Night one, which was in March 2011

I did my second oral health night in June 2013. Learnt a lot from round one and was much easier to organise the second event. Round two also had an excellent turn out with almost 30 young people.

Charlotte was an excellent door lady for me for my second Oral Health Evening, which was a fundraiser for my trip to India. 

Some of the lovely attendees, bit of a treat.

How to make cotton roll butterflies display.

Example and Olivia modelling her creation.

One of the things which came as a surprise to the attendees of talk number 2 was the recommendation not to rinse after brushing! Rinsing after you brush removes all the good stuff from your toothpaste so it doesn't stick around long enough to do its job.

Here is a wee video demonstration of how to floss properly, and why it is important. Please excuse the incredibly cheesy american-ness of this you tube clip! 

Another tip from me if you find it hard to reach the back teeth, anchor your floss by wrapping it around the ring fingers (instead of the pointers) this means you can use your pointers to help push to reach the back teeth. 

Another awesome friend, James Pendergrast, branded up my little Barina for me so I looked even more hard out. It was the funniest thing to drive around Auckland. Got lots of funny looks but more importantly people smiled. Was sad having to say good bye to this little vehicle when I moved. Will have to see who I can impact to improve their oral health over here in WA!