CHALLENGING TOPICS
There is no substitute for hard work!
The following are topics I found myself struggling with, for my comprehensive of these topics lacked during the time I learned then. With determination to fix this, I reviewed each of these topics and created study notes to aid in my learning!
Oral Health Prevention & Promotion
~ Dentifrices ~
During my Oral Health Promotion and Prevention class, we learned about dentifrices and both the inactive and active components. I found it hard to remember the purpose of the inactive components, and the oral benefits that each active component had; overall, there was a lot of information all at once, and many long names. This academic term in its entirety was one of the most difficult, and therefore I found it hard to find time to go over this topic at the time.
Areas I struggled with and therefore made study notes for to aid in my review included:
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Inactive Components of Dentifrices → Their purposes and substances used
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Active Agents of Dentifrices → Substances, their purposes, and toothpaste available
With the help of these study notes, I now feel that the gaps in my knowledge have been filled! I now feel better about the different inactive and active components within dentifrices and I am able to recognize the different components within the ingredient’s labels on dentifrices. I learned that there are numerous substances that have an anti-caries affect, and that many substances, while mainly prevent one thing, can be found to aid in multiple ways as they were noted under more than one preventative agent category.
With this added knowledge, I can now better recommend toothpastes to my clients based on their specific needs, for I rarely recommend certain toothpastes. I know part of my job as a dental hygienist is to provide my clients with all of the information necessary to treat whatever oral concern they have or I find, and the ability to recommend a toothpaste tailored to my clients needs is very important.
The only other thing I feel I need to touch on about dentifrices after this study session is which components to avoid based on client conditions, diseases, or allergies. I also feel a beneficial thing to do would be to make small recommendation cards for clients, that clearly indicate which toothpaste I am recommending, the oral benefits each toothpaste has, and a picture of the recommended product. I feel this would make toothpaste shopping much easier for my client and ensure they are getting a toothpaste in their best interest.
Pharmacology
~ Cardiovascular Drugs ~
During my Pharmacology class, we learned about various cardiovascular drugs. I found it hard to remember the different types of cardiovascular drugs, what they each did, which drug names fell under which categories, and then which drugs were taken for each cardiovascular condition. I also found the textbook to be a bit difficult to follow at times, so for this review session, I used not only Haveles textbook, but also an older oral pharmacology textbook by Weinberg.
Areas I struggled with and therefore made study notes for to aid in my review included:
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Cardiovascular drugs → drug types, actions, and names
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Drugs used in various cardiovascular conditions
With the help of these study notes, I now feel that the gaps in my knowledge have been filled! I now feel better about the various types of cardiovascular drugs and can reference this table if I want to refresh myself on the mechanism of action of a particular drug my patient is taking.
With this added knowledge, I can now be more aware of the drugs my patients are taking, and by understanding how these drugs interact with their bodies, I can anticipate the need for certain considerations, precautions, and adjustments during my appointments; for instance, hopefully coagulants and anti-platelet drugs will stand out to me more and remind me to consult a physician when needed, to prevent excessive gingival bleeding.
The only other thing I feel I need to touch on after this study session is which cardiovascular drugs negatively interact with epinephrine so I can avoid local anesthetic that contains epinephrine when necessary.
Oral Pathology
~ Neoplasia ~
During my Oral Pathology class, we learned about neoplasia and the various types of oral tumors. I found it hard to remember what classified the tumors as either benign or malignant and the names of the different types of tumors dependent on the tissue of origin. Overall, I found this longer lecture to be very overwhelming as there was so many oral lesions and growths to consider, all of which had very complicated names.
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Areas I struggled with and therefore made study notes for to aid in my review included:
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Classification and names of tumors
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Identification of various neoplastic tumors
With the help of these study notes, I now feel that the gaps in my knowledge have been filled! I now feel better about the difference between benign and malignant tumors and can recognized which growths originate where based on the suffix of each tumor indicating which family it belongs to. Through creating cue cards of each of the various neoplastic tumors I was able to start building my knowledge on this topic and started to identify key characteristics of the various tumors listed in this chapter. Repetitive quizzing with these cue cards will help me strengthen my knowledge.
With this added knowledge, I can now be more aware of the various oral lesions I may encounter during an oral cancer screening. With oral cancer screening being such a serious task for dental hygienists, and with early detection being vital, I want to ensure I am more familiar with the clinical characteristics of neoplastic lesions so that I am less likely to miss a potential concern.
The only other thing I feel I need to touch on after this study session would be non-neoplastic diseases that I may come across in the oral cavity. Truthfully, I would like to create a cue card deck for each chapter in my oral pathology textbook, for while the other chapters were not as difficult, I feel cue cards are best to learn this type of information as it is simply all memory. I also feel picture cue cards would be beneficial!