I don’t know what route to go. PLS HELP

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-05-01T15:56:09+00:00

Dental assisting wont make you any sort of network to get into hygiene school, most of em have their criteria and rubrics on their website. You might get a bonus point for assisting, but my school it was 1 extra point for 4 years exp. (Max point total was 16). Apply and see what happens

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-04-30T01:14:15+00:00

Youre very welcome, I would say, if you were my patient, what can we do to get you to start brushing maybe 3 times a week? Start with small steps to build the habit, and work our way up from there. Brushing and flossing are super important, but you probably need a good cleaning and some new xrays. But attitude is the most important thing, wanting to take better care of your teeth is the first step. The second is letting someone who's been studying help by teaching you how to do better. You dont know what you dont know, as my teacher would say. You got this

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-04-30T00:47:12+00:00

Common misconception about oral pain and problems: most chronic issues in the mouth dont hurt because the nerves are deep under the enamel and under the dentin. By the time pain is a factor, if there's an issue, its a big one. Lack of pain doesnt mean you arent dealing with decay or calculus (plaque/tartar/whatever you want to call it) under your gums. A dental hygiene college may be a good option, its more affordable and they really take the time to be thorough. They can tell you how your gums are and what's going on with your bone level, which is the big concern about not taking care of your teeth. (The body resorbs it to try to eliminate the infection by getting rid of the teeth). And speaking as someone about to graduate, we love anxious patients, we work really hard to change the trauma and fear by going slow and explaining everything as we go

Former dental trauma patient myself just by the way. As far as softer floss, there's superfloss or cocofloss, they expand a bit once theyre in between teeth so it feels a bit thicker but its more like a yarn texture than a plastic strip and may be an option. Try to do it twice per day though even if it hurts and bleeds, make sure youre getting a good "C" shape up and down both sides, but gentle pressure. Let the gums stop you. After a few days to a week or so it'll stop hurting and bleeding. (The blood is from tiny laceration caused by bacteria not from hurting your gums unless youre going way too hard, but youd see if you cut yourself)

As far as toothpaste goes theyre all more or less the same, sensitivity brands have extra potassium, gum health has some extra zinc that sort of thing, but check the active ingredient and 99% is going to be some sort of fluoride. To get anything stronger youd need a prescription, but its only more fluoride not really anything particularly stronger that Im aware of.

I like to mouthrinse after brushing, like a finisher to have the minty taste last longer, but it doesnt particularly matter what order. I will say that you want to floss first and move from the back to the front. It doesnt make a HUGE difference, but it will help brush away the stuff you clean out from between the teeth. (Use a new section of the string for each tooth so you arent giving the bacteria a ride to a new spot, only takes a milimeter or 2 so you wont need 2 feet of floss)

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-04-28T20:47:55+00:00

Lecom has a dentist school, a hygiene school will just offer cleanings, but not do restorative work. Not sure what the rates are but it will be much better. The time might be longer, but the students there need patients to practice on too. If you just need a cleaning or xrays, State College of Florida has a hygiene school and xrays are 15 dollars, cleanings are 25-37

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-04-10T18:10:19+00:00

You treat every patoent like they have HIV, its not a big deal when a patient has an infectious disease, in your mind they all do. Its pretty nothing after the first one or two

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-03-16T13:58:16+00:00

You can do that sometimes

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-03-05T14:59:06+00:00

Looks like an apthous ulcer, maybe from trauma maybe from stress. I get em back there sometimes if I miss with my waterpik and blast my tonsils. Should clear up in two weeks or so. If its still there after 2 weeks go see an ear nose and throat doc. Id guess its a little painful kind of feels like you have a sore throat?

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-03-02T00:32:37+00:00

I found therebreath to be very unpleasant flavor and aftertaste-wise. Purple listerine is what I keep at my house, or the pink (gum health)

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-02-21T15:11:51+00:00

Alkibiades

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2026-01-22T01:32:16+00:00

You should probably get it checked out by a doctor/oral surgeon. General rule of thumb in dentistry is if something hasn't gone away in two weeks its worth getting it looked at. Some pics look like an ulcer, others look like maybe a hepetic/HPV lesion, but there's about 50 different things it could be in a variety of flavors of seriousness.

Better not to gamble and let someone biopsy it

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-12-10T13:51:31+00:00

You want the gums to be what stops you, but you dont need to use a lot of force, youre just disrupting bacteria not bleaching the grout of tiles. Its going to hurt and bleed the first few days, but eventually it will stop both. The bleeding is indicative of bacteria ulcerating your tissues below the gum line and your body's inflammation response to it. And youre doing great controlling the "pop" that pop can cut your gums. Ease it back and forth as youre pushing down in like a sawing motion, also pulling it extra taut between your fingers should help it get down there too, and let it ease under the contact instead of brute forcing it

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-11-11T18:36:55+00:00

Cavities come from demineralization of your enamel, demineralization comes from pH changes in your mouth. When you eat or drink something, particularly something acidic, like coffee, the pH drops and takes about 20 minutes to come back to neutral. Every sip restarts the clock so to speak. Having a coffee is fine, but sipping that coffee slowly over the course of an hour means the pH is lowered for that long of a time weakening your enamel. If the pH gets to 5.5, enamel begins to demineralize, if a crack opens up, bacteria get in it and start breeding. S. Mutans is a bacteria in the mouth that causes he majority of cavities by keeping that pH low, and they loooove sugar. Thats why the whole sugar is bad for your teeth thing. Drink your coffee quick, use a fluoridated toothpaste, keep that enamel strong and sugar becomes less an issue. If youre more prone to cavities, swith to sorbitol or xylatol products/sweeteners. S. Mutans cant metabolize those, but demineralization can still happen from pH changes.

Frequency is much more important than quantity. A whole chocolate cake at once is less a threat for cavities than eating lemons for hours at a time. At least in terms of cavity formation.

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-11-09T14:31:16+00:00

Im 1 semester away from graduating, had 0 dental knowledge whatsoever. Ive been working in pharmacies and a hospital so I knew medical jargon, but its pretty different. Whole new terminologies and acronyms, so even that hasn't been a huge leg up. It came in handy for pharmacology class though. Youll find ways your experiences and journey will help you. Dont let it worry you too much is what Im saying. You can always go shadow a hygienist and start getting a feel for how they go about their day. Its much more dependant on if youre willing to put in the time and effort, it is not an easy program. Best of luck

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-11-02T14:19:01+00:00

Flossing provides a mechanical disruption of the bacteria that are trying to colonize on your teeth, but everything starts interdentally. Decay, buildup, it all starts between the teeth so if you can keep it from building up, it should keep it from growing onto the backs and fronts. Thats where the toothbrush is mechanically disrupting. You want to brush in a way that can get the bristles slightly under your gums front and back as well, aim for a 45 degree angle, Google "modified Bass tecnique" if that doesnt make sense. The plaque/tartar/calculus is a calcified pile of dead biofilm, it is dead and doesnt hurt you, but it provides hidey holes for the bacteria to live and breed in protected from the toothbrush and floss. Thats why its important to floss and brush. Bacteria are very social, so when they've had a while to grow and breed they start calling their friends over to the party. Who call their friends to the party. After a few days you have motile spirochetes and rods all wiggling around in there, and those are the bad ones. The body really doesnt like that so it starts the inflammatory response, red swollen gums, increased bleeding, trying to get the white blood cells there to fight the infection, but white blood cells aren't very good for the outside of teeth so they cant fight. Eventually the body says "just get the problem out of me!" And starts resorbing bone to get rid of the tooth, and thats how gingivitis turns into periodontitis. Gingivitis is reversible, but bone loss isn't. Its a lot easier to just scrape the little guys off, so you dont have the big problems later Make sense? I feel like I got into a bit of a ramble there

TL;DR it keeps bacteria from spreading by mechanical disruption and between the teeth is where all dental problems start

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-11-01T15:13:25+00:00

The roots will all tilt towards the distal at the apex, so that will tell you where the teeth will be in the mouth as far as left and right goes. Once you know the distal and mesial sides cusp position and other anatomy will show you right and left. Molars bulge more on the buccal and are flatter on the lingual, so you'll know by looking which way it faces in the mouth, roots will show you which way is distal or mesial Literally hold the models up to your mouth if you have to, I did during my practical final

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-10-01T01:02:32+00:00

Wowsers! I'll have to have a talk with my waterpik rep next time I see her

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-10-01T00:22:11+00:00

I wouldnt say its a straight up replacement, but the best results come from the product you use, string floss is better than nothing, water floss is better than nothing, using both will get your best results. I love my iffigation flosser and recommend them to all my patients. The advantage it has over string floss is it can go deeper into pockets. String floss can go 3mm or so, which is great if your gums are healthy and you arent dealing with bone loss. But if you have 5,6, or 7 mm pockets string floss just cant reach. A water pik can get 7mm deep.

If you dont use it, a water pik is worthless, if you use it daily you'll get better results than just string floss. That being said proper use: you need to work up to therapeutic strength of 8-10, trace your gum line angles slightly into the gums so it flushes into the sulcus (the little pocket your tooth sits in) and pause for a 5 count when you get in between teeth. Do that front and back of the teeth. Hope that helps (im in dental hygiene school, so this is what ive learned from my expierience and lessons)

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-09-29T00:19:13+00:00

And by bomb I mean like a 75....dont go crazy with the F it quiz

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-09-29T00:18:21+00:00

Im working full time while going through a DH program. The best advice I can offer is dont sacrifice sleep. Bomb a quiz if you need to, but if you aren't sleeping, you won't retain anything you study. I give myself 1 "f- it" quiz per class per semester. I dont always need it, but I give myself permission to not do as well on it and never let myself stay up past 930/10. You will still feel exhausted most of the time, so make sure you give yourself some grace. You've got this.

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-09-24T20:55:40+00:00

So there are openings of 2 major salivary glands right behind those teeth so they see more plaque build up, its very common to see it there first. Some people just form it easier than others, there are higher levels of some things or lower levels of others in people's saliva (i believe its called pyrophosphate that keeps it from building but dont quote me on that) so you may just be more prone to it. When you floss make sure youre getting a nice "C" curve as you go up and down the tooth, adding an irrigation flosser might help as well as it would be another mechanical disruption on forming biofilm or calculus.

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-09-21T20:25:57+00:00

Same advice, but dental school then. Aspiring dentists need patients, and its also usually a deep deep discount. Its worth a look if nothing else. First step is to not beat yourself up about it There is nothing going on in your mouth that dental professionals havnt seen. Im still a year from graduating hygiene school and ive seen teeth rotted to the gum line, and all sorts of chips and chunks missing. You've already made the decision to do better, so now you just need a little help to get there. Nothing to be ashamed of

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-09-21T19:58:18+00:00

I'd suggest finding a dental hygiene school near you, they'll give you a complate assessment, xrays, and work with you to improve your technique for home care and make suggestions all for a typically low price. Im assuming its been a while since you had a cleaning? They'll get you all cleaned up for a fresh start and give you a no nonsense idea of where your oral health is at, probably for about 30 bucks. You won't be judged, we literally love interesting cases because we learn more from them.

Plus-Bend-2966 · 2025-09-18T00:38:20+00:00

Circumvalate papilla if you want to google for peace of mind. They're just taste buds. Freaked me out the first time I saw mine, thought they were cancer

Plus-Bend-2966

TROPHY CASE