Maryam Khan, BSc, RDH
Maryam Khan, BSc, RDH, is a registered dental hygienist in Toronto, Canada. Maryam has over 12 years of experience in the dental world. Currently, she is working as an educator and hopes to help guide the future of hygienists with the same passion she carries for dental hygiene. She believes in teamwork, career longevity, and patient satisfaction. Maryam can be found on Instagram @hygienewithmaryam.
Mastering the Handoff: Importance of Relaying Information to the Dentist for Their Exam
Dental hygienists do patient handoffs multiple times a day. Some of us can do a handoff with our eyes closed. The handoff is one of the essential components of a dental appointment to make it efficient. It's an asset as a team member to seamlessly summarize pertinent information and deliver a patient to the dentist for their exam.
A well-executed...
Motivational Interviewing: Listening to the Patient and Relying on Emotional Validation
Health care professionals are consistently focused on providing evidence-based and up-to-date treatment and advice on oral health practices. We don't know how our patients process this information and the guidance provided to them. Are we assuming our time and effort spent educating and providing oral hygiene instruction is a waste?
Motivational interviewing is a different approach to educating patients to...
Does Referring to Appointments as a “Cleaning” Undervalue Dental Hygienists and Treatment Provided?
How often do friends, patients, or family members refer to hygiene appointments and professional debridement as a cleaning? Does this term undervalue the professional therapy rendered? Do you want to correct individuals using such terminology to describe your professional role or scope of practice?
As dental hygiene professionals, we are responsible for educating on the importance of oral health and...
How Hygienists Can Counter Dental Misinformation and Unsafe Products Through Social Media
Moving the profession forward and educating along the way is fundamental to improving oral health care practices over the next several generations. It's time to focus on building a global community and raising awareness about oral health conditions and cost-effective oral care practices.
Dental hygiene practitioners are in the driver's seat of oral hygiene instruction and are influential in our...
3 Tips for Dental Hygiene Graduates to Integrate into Private Practice Prepared
Dental hygiene students are often taught the dental terminology and skills required to excel in their roles in the workplace. However, the focus from the learning environment into private practice may not be thoroughly reviewed or run through with students.
Upon leaving the front doors of a dental hygiene program, many new grads may leave with the fear of not...
How Hygienists Can Be a Dentist’s Secondary Voice when Co-Diagnosing
Have you ever thought about treatment acceptance and the feeling of a "yes" from a patient? It's probably one of the most exciting moments of a dental appointment. The sweet moment is when a patient accepts your expert clinical suggestion for their dental health and agrees to a set standard of care.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like we...