u/pniis

Im on month three of working as a RDH and I had a patient yesterday who needed local SRP in one area. The rest of his mouth was pretty damn clean, there was just radiographic calculus between two molars with 5mm pocket. I can’t tell anyone how long and hard I worked on that area just to take a post xray and still see the calc there… I ran out of time so will be rescaling the area when that person comes back. I just feel so discouraged and feel like I should work in pediatric. Any advice will be great help!

I currently work at 3 different offices as a dental hygienist and my one job is offering me full time with benefits. My other two offices, one is struggling so bad to find a hygienist to fill their other days so I’m feeling so guilty with the thought of giving them notice next week because now it’s just more days they’re desperately going to struggle to fill. It’s also worrying me that there’s not really an office manager, it’s just a small practice and the dentist is the owner. He is usually out the second his last patient is done so I’m panicking on how I’m going to get to talk to him before he leaves.

I had interviewed over the phone with his daughter who is also a dentist at another location but her number is the only number I have because I’ve only been working there for two months. Is it a good idea to text her to give her the heads up in hopes she will let her father know and maybe it will make it easier to get a hold of him when I see him either Monday or Tuesday next week? Any advice is appreciated!

I currently work at 3 different offices as a dental hygienist and my one job is offering me full time with benefits. My other two offices, one is struggling so bad to find a hygienist to fill their other days so I’m feeling so guilty with the thought of giving them notice next week because now it’s just more days they’re desperately going to struggle to fill. It’s also worrying me that there’s not really an office manager, it’s just a small practice and the dentist is the owner. He is usually out the second his last patient is done so I’m panicking on how I’m going to get to talk to him before he leaves.

I had interviewed over the phone with his daughter who is also a dentist at another location but her number is the only number I have because I’ve only been working there for two months. Is it a good idea to text her to give her the heads up in hopes she will let her father know and maybe it will make it easier to get a hold of him when I see him either Monday or Tuesday next week? Any advice is appreciated!

I’ve been working as a dental hygienist for two weeks now. I’m so paranoid with patient history and making sure I thoroughly check it before proceeding with any treatment. Can anyone tell me a list of things they look for and why? I know it sounds ridiculous but I feel like we learn sooooo much in school that is not needed for our daily life during work, I feel like I’m confusing myself now more than ever.

I also wanted to see what you guys are looking for medical history wise before giving anesthesia. I’m so scared of this job and want to make sure I’m looking at all the correct info. Any input is greatly appreciated! 🥹

This is going to be long, but I’d appreciate if anyone can read and give me their honest opinion/advice. My ex and I originally had began fooling around and we started off as a friends with benefits type of situation. After a while, I expressed my feelings about him in which back then, he did not feel the same way but we fooled around for another month or so before I finally stopped answering his texts on the weekend which lead to me meeting and dating someone else. Back then, I had not bothered telling him because we were not in a relationship so I ignored his texts for weeks until he had finally asked if I was seeing anyone in which I told him I was and to basically and kindly not reach out to me any longer. That same year, about 4 months later, he randomly texted me one weekend and expressed these feelings for me and from that point, I was single again and then him and I began dating. Dated for 7 months, he broke it off, we got back together 3 months later and that lasted for 5 years until he once again, broke it off.

He had a lot of issues with his mom and he was caring for her and our relationship outside of that was not good. Even though I was in a relationship with him, I felt alone at some points but then others, felt good. A month before he ended it, I sat him down one night and talked to him about us moving in together. It was the worst night ever. He froze and barely said a word, and again mind you, we were in this relationship for 5 years at this very point. It was that moment where I knew he was going to break it off which he did about a month later. During that month leading up to him ending it, he was open telling me he was seeing a therapist because his mind was not right. I was supportive all the way through. I encouraged the therapy and even made plenty of attempts to get him out of the house and go on walks together. Even though I felt it coming, when he ended it, it felt like my entire life was falling apart but I never went back to him at any point telling him I missed him. I was so upset and angry with myself because I had felt like I wasted my twenties with someone who seemed to never actually love/like me.

That same year, we talked briefly to wish each other a happy birthday. About a year and a half later after the break up, I did reach out to him one random morning with a long message just asking for closure in which he ignored and never responded so I ended up just deleting the message and moved on with my life. At that point, I also removed him off all social media, not out of spite, just purely that in my mind, there was no point in having him involved in my life whatsoever. He ended our relationship in 2022 and we spoke a little towards the end of 2025 on instagram and to me, the conversation was not going anywhere so I ultimately left him on read but the last thing he said did not warrant a response or anything. Fast forward to March of this year, I get a random follow request on instagram from him, I declined. 4 weeks later, another follow request, I declined again but I wanted to see what he wanted so I reached out. We messaged back and forth catching up for about 4-5 weeks until he asked if he could call me one Saturday night. We talked on the phone for 2 hours and during that, he apologized for the way he ended things and other stuff.

He wanted to hangout so last weekend, he picked me up and we went for a car ride and it was the first time we had seen each other since 2022. At the end of the drive, he pulls over and we talked for 3 hours about how much he regrets ending things and wish he never did. He told me he did not realize how bad he wants what I was always offering to him in terms of actually caring for him and he didn’t realize “how good he had it” until he began dating other women and how their conversations had no substance to them. He asked how I felt about us dating again in which I got kind of quiet because I was so thrown off. I basically told him I would be okay with going with the flow and seeing where this goes before we involve going to each other’s family events again. He agreed and told me he wants to take me out on dates and shit and we were trying for the following weekend which would have/supposed to be today.

During the week, we hung out twice, and slept with each other. The first night we did it, no mention of our supposed date but the second night we got together, he then told me he had a lot going on Saturday so it might be a little late for a date by the time he was done with everything but was open to still hanging out. This of course doesn’t sit right with me and I can only blame myself for sleeping with him so fast after being apart for 3-4 years. Over the last 3-4 years, he’s become more religious which is fine because we have the same beliefs. Both nights we hung out this past week, he prays out loud in front of me before he comes to lay down.

So what I’m wondering, what is anyone’s opinion on his behavior? Where my heads at currently is, I genuinely don’t want to waste my 30s with someone that’s always been so flakey with me. Is it possible for people to actually change? Or is this just a situation where he figured out the grass was not greener? Should I just end it before it starts again? I’m so torn because I think I’ll always have some sort of feeling towards him because he was the first person I’ve ever slept with. I lost my virginity to him at 21 so I know that holds a lot in my mind