Jess Giebel, professional education manager at OraPharma and a dental hygienist, spoke with Becker's on Oct. 24 to discuss the best way dentists can support hygienists.
Editor's note: Response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What do dental hygienists need in 2023 to be successful?
Jess Giebel: There is a certain amount of support that an office and a team can show and also with the different dental companies that are out there. So with OraPharma we're really focusing on how we can support hygienists and how we can support the dental team. [Things like] being able to offer education and different websites that maybe they can direct their patients to, just making sure that there's available resources on that end. We actually have a Back to Basics website that is amazing that will help with patients' understanding of the disease state, as well as little tidbits and nuggets of information for the hygienist.
We're always learning and growing, especially hygienists, with continuing education and things like that. Professionally and personally, being able to be available at conferences — which are a huge support because that's your peer-to-peer relationship. Maybe the team can go to different conferences and get teamwork together and support the hygienists that way, too.