Performing intraoral procedures could be considered a hygienist’s job

description. It’s the things you will do every day in your time at private practice.

They are things like making X-rays, prophies, giving local anesthesia, polishing,

and etc. They are the things that make us hygienists.

I would say learning how to do each and every one of these skills over the

course of my time in hygiene school was both the most challenging and rewarding

thing I have done in my life. Learning how to properly hold and use the

instruments was so challenging in the beginning, but after semesters of hard work

the pieces have fallen into place.

Initially, when I learned that in order to pass your last semester of dental

hygiene school you have to pass instrumentation with a 95%, I thought that was

way too high. But now after seeing patients that come to college that have seen

their hygienist every 6 months for as long as they can remember, come in with all

of this burnished calculus that I have to work to remove, reminds me why it’s like

that. Our instructors want to know that we are as effective as we can be with our

instruments so we can go out there and perform our jobs adequately.

Being proficient in performing intraoral procedures is what distinguishes a

bad hygienist from a great one. I am confident when I say that hygiene school has

given me the tools to make sure than I can and will be a great hygienist!