High school is a time of excitement and stress; most of it is spent contemplating on what college to go to. The search for the perfect college has a lot to do with what career you are searching to pursue. I’ve known since sophomore year that I wanted to go into the dental field. My interest in teeth grew when I found myself making a model of occlusion for a science project. At that moment, as I sat looking at my final product is when I decided I wanted to become a dental hygienist.
My desire to be a dental hygienist has only grown and blossomed since I started my first year in the program. I never realized how hard the program would truly be or how much I would learn in just one short semester. My Oral science course has …show more content…
My future career path is to clean people’s teeth. Knowing the anatomy of different teeth will help me to identify if teeth are missing and what teeth are clinically missing. Tooth structure is also very important in the placement and interpretation of radiographs. If a patient in my chair has a suspicious carries on tooth number 19, I will need to know what type of tooth that is and on which surface it is located. Another thing that I will come across in my field is the subject of occlusion. I will need to be able to identify and correctly classify each type of occlusion. Knowing occlusion will help me investigate other serious issues that may be occurring in my patient such as attrition, temporal mandibular joint issues, and problems with mastication. Classifying occlusion will also help me suggest seeing an orthodontist if I think my patient could really benefit from going through orthodontics.
In my field, extra oral and intraoral exams are critical in the screening of cancer or harmful abnormalities. The anatomy of the oral mucosa will help me identify if there are any serious conditions that I may need to document and consult with the dentist about. The anatomy of different structures in the mouth will also help me distinguish between a disease causing abnormality and an atypical abnormality of the