My RDH Background

Well, the cliff notes version of my background is that I’ve been a dental hygienist for almost 9 years and have traveled to different parts of the world to do volunteer dental work. Doing this dental work in these impoverished countries has allowed me to see different mouths affected by different diets of different cultures. And I have compared those mouths to the mouths I work on daily. American mouths. I have seen incredible differences.

Now for the longer(ish) version.

I’ve always wanted to be a dental hygienist. Like always. Ever since I was 13 years old actually, and I never changed my mind. Apparently some of us get our calling young in life. As I began in the dental field I thought maybe I wanted to help in more ways than “just” cleaner mouths. I wanted to make healthier mouths, I wanted to make healthier people. But I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it.

My mantra has always been, “I’m saving the world one smile at a time”. Cute, right? I graduated dental hygiene school, in January 2009, and 3 weeks later was accepted onto a Naval Hospital Ship, The USNS Comfort, to travel to parts of Latin America to do volunteer dental work. I was able to go to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I was in each country for two weeks, while living on the ship like those enlisted in the Navy. Such a great experience for *SO* many reasons.

The first reason being, it was incredible to serve alongside our active military men and women. If you are reading this blog, and are active, or retired military of ANY kind-Thank YOU! Our military servicemen and women are amazing and work so very hard for us civilians. And frankly, us civilians, we don’t get it. We celebrate Veterans Day and Memorial Day, but truly, you don’t “get it” until you’re in it. And I had the privilege of living like a Navy-enlisted for a month – it was quite the experience.

The second reason that it was so life-changing to travel and work as a dental hygienist was that I got to witness what it was like living in a third world country. WOW. Now that’s a game-changing experience. If you grew up in the “American suburbia” like I did, it is humbling to go outside of the walls of your comfort zone. To live amongst, leaky, rickety huts, foreign HUGE bugs and major daily obstacles for simple things like fresh water is eye opening.

Although, I will say, the different cultures I encountered, didn’t seem phased by these “obstacles”. This was just their daily lives, and they were thankful for the foreign visitors like the military or missionaries that came to help them and give them any medical relief at all.

It was in these developing countries that I began seeing how different these “poor” peoples’ mouths were in comparison to the American mouths I was used to seeing. These people had never seen a doctor, let alone the luxury of seeing a dentist or dental team. These people were poor and lived humbly. Meaning they worked hard, and did everything themselves. There were no IN-N-OUTs to get a quick bit. They grew all their own food. Crops like spinach, kale, snap peas, and onions, AND they farmed their own animals. Everyone in these villages did. Their cows, goats and chickens roamed free around the towns. When someone needed to make a meal, they would go in their backyard and grab some fresh vegetables or slaughter an animal themselves. This is quite different from the American lifestyle I grew up in and am surrounded by still. Most American’s don’t know where their produce is even grown, let alone WHAT IS IN IT. Yes, our produce may be labelled “organic”. But other than known that this vetegabke was grown “without” pesticides (only for the last). What else do you know about your food? How long has it been sitting there on the stores shelves? Where did it come from? Was the soil it was grown in good quality? Were the farming conditions sustainable? What about fair trade? See?!? Most people know very little about their foods. Same with the animal products we eat – we do not know where they came from, what that animal ate, or what its living conditions were like.

I am not trying to sound all BIG BROTHER on you, or sugguest that GMO’s are actually a big political conspiracy. I’m not. But what I am suggesting it, is we need to be more educated about what we are putting in our mouths.

These seemingly small differences about knowing about your food vs. not known about your food makes a world of a difference. The patients that I saw in all those difference countries all has something in common. Their mouth and teeth were not nearly as involved with dental issues as I would have expected. For a culture of people whom have not seen, or ever been seen by a dental team, some were in "decent" shape, especially compared to says, my American patients who have been seeing a dentist very regularly for most of their lives.

I went to Haiti, for example, expecting to see rampant tooth decay in all of these patients. Expect I didn’t. I was expecting to see severe gingivial bleeding (bleeding gums) in all of them. But I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong. I saw plently of tooth decay and I saw extreme bleeding at times. However, I did not see it nearly as much I would have in San Diego, where I practice dental hygiene. This is especially true considering the fact that people I saw in these other countries (Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Kenya) had never seen a dentist and never floss. My American patients on the other hand, see dentists very regularly, go to there doctors annually, and YET have soooo many dental issues. Like chronically swollen gums, that bleed all over the place or get cavities every other visit. What gives?

Westin A. Price was a dentist in the 1900's. He traveled to many difference parts of the world and investigated the difference in people's cultural diet, their saliva and their cavity pervelance. He discovered a undeniable correlation between a persons diet, the health of there mouth and their general health. His book Nutritional and Physical Degeneration (click link to check it out) describes in great detail how Price and his team came about these shocking statistics. This book has been an insightful read for me. Truly confirming what I've witnessed all along in my patients.

In my career as a dental hygienist, I would like to help more people through oral care and evaluations. With the nutritional finds of Westin A. price in the forefront of my mind, and knowing the current nutritional habits of many Americans, I plan to help as many people whom are willing to let me help guide them to healthier lifestyles and practices. With evaluations of their current oral status and their medical histories I believe I can lead patients to discover their healthiest self.