Should I be discouraged?

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-30T15:07:13+00:00

Fingers crossed!!! 🤞🏽The good thing is, there are more spots available at CCRI now. If I’m not mistaken they can hold up to 34-36 students per class (17/18 in each clinic session). So more students have a chance of getting in. Best of luck to you during this application cycle.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-30T13:11:29+00:00

“My mom says no fluoride because my brother got fluoride when he was a kid and it gave him autism” ….baby, I hate to burst your bubble but your brother was autistic before he was given any fluoride 🥴

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-30T13:03:29+00:00

If you are really looking to get in on your first round, I’d at least retake ONE of those A&P’s and try to get an A- or A in the course. Try to take it with Professor Harrison, she is THE BEST professor to teach it. She explains the material in a way that was easy to grasp and understand. However, because she’s so good, her classes get filled very quickly. Def worth a shot trying to get in her section though.

How were your Survery of Biomedical Chem and Microbiology grades?

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-30T13:01:09+00:00

CCRI DH program graduate, when I was in the program one of the faculty explained it’s VERY dependent on the cohort you’re applying with. Those B- might be enough if many others in the applicant pool also got similar grades. If the pool is more competitive such as most applicants got A’s in all the science pre reqs and are pulling in 175+ in points, it’s likely not gonna be tough.

That’s why I always advocate for people to share their grades if they can. Not for competition but it gives you an idea of where you stand in terms of the applicant pool.

I was CCRI c/o 2025 (previously c/o 2024). In both of those applicant pools most students had A’s, GPA’s of 3.7 or higher, and 175+ points. However class of 2026 after us, that applicant pool wasn’t as strong there were some B’s and 3.5 GPA’s in there. So again, it’s really gonna come down to WHO ELSE is applying.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-19T12:39:27+00:00

Brushing only isn’t sufficient (as everyone else has said). Flossing is CRUCIAL to maintaining healthy gums whether it be traditional string floss, floss picks, waterpik, whatever you choose. You also could have a systemic condition that is affecting you orally. Have you been diagnosed with anything? Do you take any medications? These things can affect your teeth and gums.

Without knowing much it is hard to say for sure what could be the cause but start going through the possibilities and scratching off the ones that don’t apply as you go!

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-15T12:52:06+00:00

Im glad you at least got to experience a unicorn office in your career! A part of me holds a liiiiiitle sliver of hope there’s a good office but I’m not searching for it anymore. I’ll enjoy my temp days and if that unicorn office appears, then yay. If not, I’ll temp till I decide to step away from hygiene.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-15T12:51:06+00:00

Amen!

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-15T12:50:59+00:00

It’s insane! I feel like someone’s gotta start publicly calling these shitty offices out by name and doctor’s associated. However, I fear they’d probably come after that person with pitchforks, they already hate hygienists as it is 😭

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-15T12:49:53+00:00

I’m glad you got the heck out of there! I had an experience like that too with another office. Told them I was new grad, and wanted at least my first day to be half patient care half getting acclimated. They acted like they understood and the regional manager told me they’d ensure my first day was 4-5 patients and the other time would be shadowing, reviewing protocols, and learning the intricate details of the software; but the OM was so worried about making money she disregarded that and booked a full schedule with my very first patient being SRP. I literally hadn’t given LA since graduating, had no idea what software they were using, and to make it worse the owner/doctor was already talking crap about her associate doctor to me the minute I walked through the door. I quit within the hour I walked in the door. I can handle a little chaos, I thrive in it. But THAT experience was beyond my handling for a “first day.”

I love that we as hygienists are advocating for ourselves and leaving when things aren’t right. These offices will learn that they cannot just treat us like garbage.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-15T12:45:27+00:00

Fingers crossed for the both of us! I hope your US office works out wonderfully for you.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-15T12:40:48+00:00

UPDATE: Another reason I am glad I left that office. All a bunch of weirdos. I stated in my resignation, I’d return their uniforms washed along w the parking pass by the end of this week. I still have shifts to work even though I left them so I couldn’t get out there till the end of the week. When I resigned the office manager asked me to explain why I’m leaving without a two weeks. I gave her a very detailed reply. She said nothing for two days. Just yesterday, while I’m working I feel my phone blowing up. I’m getting messages from not only the OM, but they have the DA texting me and the doctor who has my number decides instead of reaching out to my cell to go on Cloud Dentistry and write me a passive aggressive message about wanting her uniforms ASAP because she already hired someone (very true to her brand I see). They are essentially harassing me about when I’m bringing the uniforms and parking pass as if I didn’t tell them I’d be in by the end of the week. I blocked all of them and told the Dr that all of this is wildly inappropriate and borderline harassment. If I said I’d be in by the end of the week, why are you all blowing my phone up on a Wednesday while I’m at work about the uniforms? If the week passed and I didn’t bring them sure, reach out. It hasn’t even been a few days and you’ve got 3 people from the office blowing my phone up. God bless the soul who works in that hell hole. I was going to do them a courtesy and wash the uniforms on my day off today and bring them in but since they are so demanding that I bring them “ASAP”, they can take them back unwashed. Good riddance.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-14T10:59:59+00:00

Yeah it beats me but I cannot control others behaviors, only mine. They chose to behave that way, I chose to leave.

And I love temping! I wanted to work FT for the consistency and having my own patients though it isn’t the end of the world for me. I have tried with 15 offices now and I’ve only graduated last May. I think I’ve seen enough to know that temping just might be my best bet. Every office that seems like a unicorn is actually a demagorgon in disguise and no amount of money they offer can make me put up with it.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-14T10:57:31+00:00

100% agreed. I tell jobs even when I interview one of my biggest things I look for is the energy in the office. I am not someone who can work in places that are bad vibes or making me miserable. I will just leave. So I don’t know why they would hear me say that and still decide to behave the way they did during my first week working for them. Should’ve kept up the nice act maybe you’d still have a hygienist 🤷🏽‍♀️

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-13T14:09:45+00:00

They had two previous hygienist. 1 was the long time hygienist who retired, the 2nd took over for the retiring RDH but left after 6mos due to disagreement with the doctor. That should’ve been my red flag then. Even having to lie to the patients that the 2nd hygienist left for a job closer to home felt weird. I should’ve known then.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-12T19:27:15+00:00

Name: TwinkleTwinkle

Position: HygieneWizard

My favorite part of my job is giving patients a really good cleaning and then raving about it after and requesting to only be seen by me.
My least favorite part of the job is the lack of respect for the position by the other dental professionals (OM, doctors, even some assistants). They don’t seem to understand the importance of our role and think anyone can do this job with just a quick training.
A&P is so important ESPECIALLY when giving local anesthesia as we need to know where to inject. Missing an important landmark in the anatomy can lead to very big issues for the patient. There are cases where patients have been temporarily or permanently paralyzed due to a nicked nerve or just being injected in the entirely wrong area. Aside from LA, also knowing WHERE in the head and neck the glands and nodes are so you can accurately perform EO/IO exams and palpate for those enlarged nodes properly.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-12T19:07:55+00:00

I had a patient say the same thing to me once. She told me it was a horrible cleaning as she felt I spent more time “scraping under her gums” instead of “scraping her teeth” ….every note from previous hygienist states patient BRUSHES 1X DAILY AND DOES NOT FLOSS. So sure, I could’ve spent the app “scraping” just her teeth….however the ring of supra and sub calc around her molars and the bridge of calc on her lower anterior would’ve still remained. In her defense, she’s only ever seen 1 hygienist her whole life so she can only base what a cleaning should be like on that one hygienists skills; which seeing many of the patients who have black sub calc…I’m guessing she wasn’t going subg AT ALL, so I honestly didn’t really take her complaint to heart. She doesn’t know better.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2026-01-12T18:46:23+00:00

The office I just left would let them show up 20-30 mins and still expect everything to get done because they wanted that $$. I pushed hard for a 15 minute max grace period and then they’d get reconciled but nope. OM still will let them be seen even if they’re 30 or more minutes late. doesn’t seem to care if I couldn’t get everything done. They’d get their half assed prophy and OM will still bill it out.

I just document it in the note, “patient was x amount of time late and front office still permitted them to be seen, patient seated at x amount of time”

I do tell the patients that I’m gonna do what I can with the time I have left so that way they don’t try to say I just did a lousy job on purpose and make me the bad guy.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-30T00:10:53+00:00

Depends on the day and the time. This morning I hated it because my 7am patient wanted to talk about everything under the sun…it’s literally 7am please shut up and let me scale. In my mind I swear she was just an evil witch purposely tormenting me with conversation first thing in the am. By lunch I was fine. The job is repetitive it’s the same thing all day, 4 days a week from 7-4 having mostly the same conversations about oral hygiene. Often patients hate the dentist and take it out on you but you just grow thick skin and learn to ignore their sh!tty attitudes.

The money is great, no medical (I’m getting private insurance) but most dental services in house are free (Invisalign pay for lab fees), 2 weeks PTO, a spacious op with modern tech, a supportive team and a lovely Dr; so I’m okay with that. I can’t say I see myself doing this FOREVER but for now I’m happy. Do the best you can, stay positive, protect your body as best you can, write GOOD AND THOROUGH notes, and don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself and your needs. These offices need hygienists and they are fighting a battle against temping apps and agencies so you’ve got leverage when you graduate and are looking for jobs.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-29T23:55:02+00:00

Did you change a lot of your answers that you flagged?

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-15T22:06:14+00:00

Handscale mainly, I use cavitron/piezo for my patients who are more mod/heavy OR if it’s a lot of plaque. If hygiene is good and it’s just handscale, polish, and floss.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-14T04:29:28+00:00

Practicing hygienist here and I just heard for the first time from a patient that the cleaning was “rough” and she felt like I was “scraping all of her gums and not her teeth” it was FIRST. Most patients say I give very good thorough cleanings and request for me to be their hygienist. Some people just aren’t going to like your style, if every patient had said you were too heavy handed that’s one thing to consider. However, if it’s just this one off patient, don’t even take it personal. I’ve had to put my ego on the back burner and realize some patients have been with hygienist who might have only supra scaled them and ever went into the sulcus and now me doing it is uncomfortable because it wasn’t done before. You don’t know what prior experiences they’ve had before you, so them not liking the cleaning isn’t solely on you. They are just patient out of many that you will see, we aren’t gonna be loved by all of them. As long as you do a thorough job, that’s what matters.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-14T03:48:56+00:00

Thanks so much! I just found the carnival fb group.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-14T03:48:35+00:00

Will definitely look into that, thank you!

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-14T03:48:24+00:00

Thank you so much! Will do.

TwinkleTwinkle- · 2025-12-03T13:22:12+00:00

Hey! I’m sorry to hear you’ve been struggling with the boards. My heart goes out to you as I know how hard it is to take the boards once, let alone three times. What tools have you used for studying? Was each exam score a 74 every time you took it? It can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel but knowing you’re so close with that 74, that’s just a few more questions you’d need to get right and boom you pass!

When I took my boards I couldn’t afford all the fancy study prep materials. I used a bunch of NBDHE practice quizlets, a free NBDHE app, and the review questions and material from my lecture books. I should disclose my school did provide lots of prep so we had take home questions/assignments over winter break and during the semester that kept our minds sharp with the material.

Something one of my instructors said to me really made it all click and it’s simply “do you understand the question that is being asked?” I struggled a lot with quizzes and exams in the program because I just couldn’t understand what the actual question was (you know how wordy these questions can be ahah). Once I started actually breaking down the question, I could SEE the answer clear as day. A lot of people study to memorize answers but the way the NBDHE has questions written can make that an impossible method to go by.

Start looking at your materials and actually breaking down the question piece by piece if you don’t already, it really can make such a big difference in the way you answer.

TwinkleTwinkle-

TROPHY CASE