Answer: 2

1.  What is your EQ?

What is the best way to maximize retention of patients when running a dental clinic?

2.  What is your first answer?

The dentist can help the patient by comparing different medical organizations that help people with financial limitations.

3.  What is your second answer?

The dental staff must provide information for the patient when they are looking into different types of benefit plans that different agencies offer for certain demographics.  

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

1. People have been saying that they fear of visiting the dentist due to the expenses of their treatments and unsure if they couldn't afford it.
2. Patients are still unaware of programs that could help them with finding the right healthcare plan. My mentor was discussing with one of the patients about the cost of the treatments and also referenced to her medical agencies that suit her eligibility.
3. Since people in the low demographic areas are less educated, especially immigrants, come here and have no idea on where to ask about finding them a suitable healthcare plan and also as well having a doctor talk to them in detail about what type of dental care plan is right for them since they might not know what questions to ask.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

• Hanks, Jody. "DECS: Experts in the Technical Side of Dentistry: Solving Operational Issues and Providing Guidance in the Dental Community." The Dental Assistant 78.3 (2009): 15-16. American Dental Assistants Association. Web. 2 Oct. 2014

6.  What other source supports your answer?

• Logan, Henrietta L., Yi Guo, Virginia J. Dodd, Christine E. Seleski, and Frank Catalanotto. "Demographic and Practice Characteristics of Medicaid-participating Dentists." Journal of Public Health Dentistry 74.2 (2013): 139-46. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

Overall research and going with my mentor I was able to form my second answer because I witnessed how people in these clinics becoming afraid as they entered the clinic, unaware of the cost of treatments.

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.

January Blog

As I was working at the Claremont dental clinic, I was talking to one of the nurses and she explained to me this particular machine can make crowns and veneers; it saves more time for them as well as the patients instead of having one particular tooth to be sent to the lab and waiting for days to recieve it. As you see in the video how a special type of liquid is being sprayed onto the block of the tooth model material, this is to shape the desired model for a crown or veneer. This roughly takes about 10 minutes to shape it from a block into the desired tooth model. Then after that they go into the mini lab and shape the crown or veneer more to fit the patient's structure of their teeth. Then after that they paint the crown or veneer to match the color of the patient's teeth and put it into another machine to let it dry and seal in the color and formation of the crown or veneer.

Lesson 2 Reflection

Content:

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
As I was describing the different types of oral diseases, I noticed how people were getting so squimishy on how much these diseases can cause great damage to their oral as well as overall health. This made me feel proud that I was able to show them a different understanding on basic dental health.
2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?
             P      

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
I wasn't quite detailing some parts during my presentation and I know i should have said more about those little specific details.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
Talking about the fear of going to the dentist and what the reasons are is the main problem with people, especially people in low demographic areas.
4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
I would have done my hook activity differently and fix a few errors on my activity worksheet then I would have brought more attention to the class.
5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
I will mostly focus on the healthcare plans that affect the people in low demographic areas.

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I went to both my dental clinics, my main clinic is in Pomona called Trance and Dental Spa. The other clinic is located in Claremont called Smile Design.

2.   Who is your contact?

For my contact I mostly go to Trance and Dental Spa and talk to Diana who is one of mentors there at the clinic. The phone number for the clinic is (909)865-8595.

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?

So far I have done 31hours in total from both my dental clinics for my mentorship hours.

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

I have learned in a hands on experience of what's it is like being a nurse assistant by helping out in cleaning the clinic, sanitzing the dental equipment, and cleaning up after the patient has been finished with his treatment.

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?
I was able go to both my dental clinics where one is located in Pomona, while the other is at Claremont. What I was doing in the clinics in order to have that hands on experince was cleaning up after the doctor was finished with his patient's treatment. I also had the liberty to sanitize the dental equipment as well as helping the nurses out during the patient's treatment.


2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
What I learned is it's not what counts on the outside of the clinic but what goes behind the desk, meaning the actual experience of the clinic. During my time working in Pomona, the patients were focusing on how each move or word we said can affect how they react to us. Likewise in Claremont, where I was very cautious about what I say or do in the clinic which can affect the patients emotions. Its not about having the high tech equipment that makes the clinic so popular but treating the patients with the upmost care.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?
I  would talk to one of the main nurses who took me in as an intern in the Claremont clinic. Throughout the entire time woking in the clinic, I always see her comforting the patients before the doctor comes in to begin working on their treatment. She makes the clinic go more smoothly for the doctor as well as the other staff members.