Independent Component 2

Content:  

LITERAL
(a) I, Paulina Dominguez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) Twigg, Tim. "Common Practices Fraught with Risk." Dental Economics. PennWell Corporation, n.d. Web. 16 Apr.2015.
(d) I was able to observe and work in the Pomona dental clinic due to Claremont telling me that they were not able to take me in to work with them. But I was still able to see what the Pomona dental clinic did for their patients; this included calming the patient as well as connecting with them. 

INTERPRETIVE 

I focused more on how the the dental staff treated the patients. I wanted to see how they work with their patients as well as observe what the results were from how dental staff's actions affected the patients afterwards. I have a link to my 30+ hours of working on my independent component onto the right of my blog. The picture provided in this post now demonstrates a small portion of how the patients in the Pomona dental clinic respond to the performance of the staff. The rest of the pictures are on my previous independent component blog about the work atmosphere in Claremont and Pomona, as well as the technology used in these clinics.
   
APPLIED
 With my research and observations of the Pomona dental clinic, it made me realize how important it is to connect with the patient themselves in order to have them maintain a healthy mouth. What Diana was talking to me during our time together in the Pomona dental clinic, she explained to me that while she's giving the patients advice or a quick summary of what needed to be fixed from the patient's case; the patient is focused on what she says because of how they treated them before and after the treatment was done. The patients even told them numerous times that they felt so involved and understood what the dilemma was for their case, this made them more connected to the dental staff. I even witnessed from one patient who had given his life story about him growing up rough with no parents, no house, job, and car. Since he was eligible for coverage of his financial state, the dental staff worked on him but after he was done, the staff let him stay with them for the entire rest of the day. The staff talk to him one on one and offered food and gave him shelter locations on where he can stay for the night. That patient said that dental clinics like Pomona would be hard to find since clinics like Claremont only treat you as a number when you come in and walk you out the door. With Diana telling me that dental clinics show a different personality on how they approach the patients with showing them this brand new technology but what really counts is what the dental staff does for the patient and how they respond back to the patient making them feel important. But that all ends when I witnessed patients were escorted out the clinic when they were done with them, not even letting the patients stay to talk to them since they are on a busy schedule. This is why to me it made more sense on why Pomona dental clinic told me to observe and see the difference on how the dental clinics treat their patients.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. I will continue to go to both my dental clinics, which is Smile Design and Trance & Dental Spa. I would still do my usual work routine in both clinics since I want to see what happens in the actual procedures and keep observing patients on their emtional state when coming to the dentist. Before the patients come in and sit in the dental chair, I would ask them if they are willing to participate in a local survey to provide research about how patients feel when coming to the dentist.

2. I will create at least 50 surveys in total but split the pile into 25 for each clinic since I want to start off small not knowing how the patients are willing to answer my survey. While creating the survey I would ask about the basic information about the patient themselves such as gender, age, ethnicity, religion, but I would not go any personal for them having to put their name, number, and address for the survey. After asking the basic questions of the patient's demographics, I would put some more emotional questions on how they feel when coming to the dentist.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
This will help me in my research and find out if the theories are true about people not visiting the dentist that often. I will be able to sort out the different groups of people and see what each one has in common with each other as well as what makes an actual patient fear or hate visiting the dentist. It would also help me see if high and low demographics have certain problems such as payments for the services for each clinic since all the treatments are the same pricing but just in different payment methods.

Independent Component 1

LITERAL

•  “I, Paulina Dominguez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
•  My sources are my mentors at these two different dental clinics that have helped me along the way during my independent component, one in pomona, while the other is in claremont.
•  For my independent component I worked half the 30 hours with the pomona dental clinic and claremont dental clinic, I observed the two and I was able to get hands on experience, seeing how new interns come in and help around in the dental clinics. I was able to sanitize the dental instruments, as well as wipe down the entire area of the dental chair when the doctor was finished with the procedure on the patient.  I was learning along the way on where the dental instruments are organized and help set up equipment for the next patient coming in. 

INTERPRETIVE
As I was working in these two dental clinics, I instantly noticed right away the big difference on how these clinics are similar yet when walking into them, totally seem different just by appearence.

For the first two photos are taken in the Claremont call Claremont Smile Design. The first picture where is the fron desk where patients come in to check in. And in the second picture is where for new patients get their whole mouth xrayed by this new device that can examine the entire mouth with its mechanical 360 degree feature. This saves so much time as well as having the xrays digitalized where the patient and doctor are able to see the results instantly without having to wait for it to process unlike other older machines.

Seeing the difference as these bottom two pictures are taken in the Pomona dental Clinic called Trance and Dental Spa. This picture is the front desk where as you can see how its more simplistic for family friendly envirmoment for low demographic areas. But considering this for most of the patients felt more eased because its simple enough for them to come in and mostly focus on what really goes behind the desk and notice more on the work experience instead of just appearence of the clinic.

The second photo is a machine where is the dental equipment go in and have the final process of sanitizing in its three step process I was able to work on during my hours. This machine is not really the newest version but it still does the same job as any other steam sanitization machine like the one in claremont. The difference is that this one is more manual where the one in claremont is more modernized with having  just buttons to make it easier to work with.
APPLIED
It made me realize as I worked in both dental clinics, noticing the obvious differences on how these dental clinic's appearence is and how different the staff works, but what makes them more interesting is how the pomona clinic were so connected with the patients for my independent component showed me more on how different dental clinics have different atomosphere as well as how much of the patient to doctor connection each one had. One of the doctors in the pomona explained how he works in a high paced dental clinic where you could barely have any close connection with one patient, in which the doctor's coinfidence decreases becauseof them not knowing if the patients come out of the dental clinic and truly understand the certain basic steps when maintaining a healthly mouth. This helped me create my EQ and understand why I chose my answer to focus more on the basic knowledge to families who are in need of services and programs to help spread awareness of this escalating issue in the dental world.

Blog 7: Independent Component 1 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

From seeing how I can only observe in my topic, which is dentistry, I wanted to make an observation of seeing the difference of how many dental clinics operate and how each one advertises comparing and contrasting with low-income verses high-income patients. From what I already know coming from one of the dentists who works at my mentor’s clinic, explains that he works in another dental clinic in Las Vegas. He says that for him working at a low income area is much more relaxing than a high income patient based area. It depends on what the demographics are of each area and where the patients are at; which can also relate to the location of the clinics there as well. I will contact a clinic that has more of a higher demographics and compare and contrast of what my mentor’s clinic versus the well- known dental clinics has to offer to their patients. To also get the view point from a patient of the different advertising that these two clinics have to present.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

By taking notes on what the dentists do for the patients, how much time they spend with each one, the payments for the procedures, and also taking photos from the different clinics. Also seeing how the staff is with each other and how they present themselves to the patients professionally.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

I wanted to go more into depth and focus my topic on dentistry business because seeing how it takes much more knowledge than knowing the basics or advancements in dentistry major. But it takes more effort in becoming well known if the dentist who has so many degrees and certificates in dentistry and other majors yet has no clue on where or how to start their own business. For example I looked up a dental clinic that is in Beverly Hills and one dental clinic called “The Smile Transformation Expert”; the main dentist there named Dr. Kourosh Maddahi, who was in many popular news media coverage such as Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, and Good Day LA. Just by seeing this and seeing how many dentists who are well known who have written their own books and magazine covers.

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log.

I have already updated my senior project hours log to the summer mentorship, mentorship hours, independent components one and two format.