Should a dentist do their own hygiene?

 It really depends on the dentist and his practice. I personally enjoy doing some of our patients cleanings. Historically  I have always been open to accepting hygiene appointments and find it a good way of connecting with our patients. 

That being the case, many dentists choose to employ hygienist to do their patients recare appointments in order to free up time for them to do their restorative dental or other more challenging and lucrative procedures. For most of my career I have employed hygienists to perform some of the cleanings for my patients. This was an efficient way to handle recare and most paitents like having a hygienist clean their teeth.

Still some patients seemed to prefer my cleanings and the time I would spend with them. When my son David has joined our practice, He also accepted hygiene appointments. As a matter of fact, recently when my long time hygienist left, we decided not to  replace her and My son and I have been able to absorb her patients into our schedule. 

For the time being we are sharing our hygiene load and it seems to be working well for our patients and David. Our patients have been accepting of this change and our dental practice is truly a family affair.



from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2026/04/should-dentist-do-their-own-hygiene.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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