Del Mar College’s Dental Hygiene Clinic offers services to the community at no charge, including blood pressure screenings, fluoride treatments, and oral cancer screenings.
Not only do these services benefit patients, but they also benefit the students, giving them hands-on experience and required hours needed to complete their program in dental hygiene.
The Foghorn has covered this story in the past, but never from the perspective of someone’s personal experience.
I called the number provided on the Dental Clinic’s website to schedule a qualifying appointment and was able to schedule right away.
A qualifying appointment determines what type of cleaning will be needed, and if the patient meets the educational and health requirements to qualify for the cleaning. After the patient is qualified, a student hygienist is assigned and contacts the patient to schedule an appointment.
I arrived 15 minutes early for my appointment, and soon my name was called and greeted with a warm welcome from Marisol Guerrero, the student performing my checkup appointment.
To start, Guerrero gave me chlorhexidine rinse, which is a disinfectant medication almost like mouthwash. She then checked my gums and for possible plaque buildup on my teeth.
“Each student gets 1-2 patients a day,” Guerrero explained. Their days are busy with assessments and X-rays on their patients. On a typical clinic day students arrive 15 minutes before the appointment to set up and clean equipment before bringing in their patient and going through their health history.
According to Guerrero, time is the biggest challenge most students face in the program. She struggles mainly with time management. Finishing everything in one semester can be difficult when also juggling patients and the load can become overwhelming. Just like any other class, they must study, take quizzes and tests, plus their clinicals are also graded.
Guerrero chose the field because she spent many hours at the dentist when she was young due to a facial abnormality. “I kinda always knew I wanted to be in the dental field,” she said.
For anyone considering going into the field, Guerrero advises to “make sure you take your time learning,” but that you also enjoy the topic. Microbiology and anatomy play a huge part in the program, but there is also no math class required, which I think is very nice.
