Have You Hugged a Hygienist Today?

by Suzanne Hubbard, RDH

When I think of National Dental Hygiene Month (October), I associate it with many aspects of serving — building more education into our communities, and organizing and volunteering our services to the masses. It is a month where we draw more attention to the needs of our cities and towns by delving into issues such as access to care. We bring more awareness about the importance of oral care.

We serve continually, so in honor of next month, may I suggest that we plan a moment, a day to stop and breathe and allow ourselves to sit on the prince/princess throne of hygiene (in all of its full glory!).

I saw a bumper sticker recently that asked, “Have you hugged a hygienist today?” When I read it, I thought, how often do we really get that hug. Usually, we are doing the hugging. In addition, a patient recently asked, “Does it ever bother you that most people don’t want to come and see you?”

Of course, when he asked the question, I had a sharp instrument staring him in the face. We laughed and I stated, “No it doesn’t bother me. If I wanted people to embrace me, I would’ve chosen an ice cream or candy route!”

We need to realize that the hug most likely won’t come from our patients. So in honor of next month, find fresh ways to embrace you during the month-long celebration of dental hygiene in October.

Take some time to write a list of the top five things you could do to honor yourself and your career. Write down your desires, and then write how this honors me/my profession? For each one of us it will be vastly different. What started out as a simple desire in thought became a concrete list:

Desire:

1. Take cookies to the hygienists in my local component to honor them this month.

How this honors me/my profession:

Allows me to get back into the lives of other hygienists. Allows them to be encouraged and renewed in their own profession.

Desire:

2. Refresh myself by reviewing past seminar materials and textbooks.

How does honors me/my profession:

Allows me to see how far I’ve come. Gives me the ability to look back and see the progress I’ve made, and know that I have a lot more to learn.

Desire:

3. Start meeting more regularly with local component groups to stay connected and network.

How this honors me/my profession:

Allows me to form a connection with others. Are they experiencing the same things I am? Do I need to learn and grow with them? What insight do they have to offer?

Desire:

4. Find ways to mentor those contemplating the profession.

How this honors me/my profession:

Allows others experience what I love about what I do!

Desire:

5. Call hygiene friends and stay connected in their lives.

How this honors me/my profession:

Allows me to forge ahead with important friendships and relationships related and connected with hygiene.

Of course, massages, coffee with friends, shopping, and eating were all desires on my list; however, I narrowed those things, which compelled a sense of professional direction. Over the past year, this list has become the compass, the mapping of the course of my professional life. As I have taken a moment to stop, take a seat and look back, this small but important step in my career has helped shape what I am. It has helped shape the process of what I am still becoming. Therefore, in honor of this month, I will once again consider my list of ways to grow, move forward, access the bumps in the road, and plow ahead.

I’ve hugged a hygienist today; I’ve embraced her — yep, myself!