When you attend Dental Hygienist School, it teaches you the essential hard and soft skills. One of the main responsibilities of a dental hygienist is to educate the patients and the community about dental hygiene. You would be carrying out periodical health examinations and the other dentists would use your diagnosis and recommendations for the treatment. As everything that happens in the room needs to be documented, you should make a comprehensive checklist. Following are thirteen things that you should include in your checklist. .
- Overbite:
It happens when the patient’s upper front teeth bite down onto the lower teeth. Some cases are so severe that the upper teeth bite so deep into the lower teeth, that they completely cover them, in turn forcing the lower teeth to rest on the palate. This usually happens due to the discrepancy in the jaw size.
- Underbite:
As the name suggests, it is an opposite of an overbite where the lower teeth cross the upper teeth, which happen due to the undergrowth of the upper jaw or the overgrowth of the lower jaw.
- Overjet:
Also known as a protrusion, it is a dental problem in which the lower teeth don’t extend forward properly or the upper teeth are extended way too forward. This happens due to improper jaw development, genetics, improper molar alignment or missing lower teeth.
- Crossbite:
It happens when an upper tooth or teeth but the inside instead of biting the outside of the lower teeth. This happens due to the upper and lower jaw misalignment.
- Crowding:
When there is not enough space on the jaws for teeth to fit naturally, then crowding occurs. It usually happens when the jaw is too small or when the teeth are too big. In some situations, it may become necessary to remove some teeth or use a palatal expander to alter the size of the jaw.
- Abnormal Eruption:
When the tooth is emerging from the wrong place in the gum. - Excessive Spacing:
It happens when some teeth do not grow or one loses their teeth due to disease or trauma.
- Open Bite:
In open bite, the upper and lower front teeth are not able to come together when biting, which leads to open space. It happens due to prolonged thumb sucking or tongue thrusting. - Upper and lower midline:
Happens when the midline is off-centre and lips are slightly apart when at rest. The upper midline is when the midline is skewed at the top and the lower midline is when skewing is towards the bottom. - Palate Width:
When the palate width lies outside the normal range of 36 to 38mm. Risk of crowding increases with lower width.
- Offset Canine Position:
The crown of the canine should be at a particular angle concerning the lateral incisor’s distal contour. - Missing teeth:
The number of teeth missing will help you plan for replacement. - Airway Obstruction:
If the airway has been obstructed then it becomes difficult to breathe easily through the nose when the lips are rested. You should be checking for lip strain, allergies, snoring, stuffiness and tonsils.
