This week on Protecting our Public Health Sharity Ludwig interviews Maureen Johnson, who is a registered dental hygienist. Maureen works with the special needs population and shares with us what lead her to this position working with special needs patients and what her position looks like on a daily basis.
Episode Highlights
- Maureen’s background
- Immersion experience
- Maureen’s typical day in her position
Quotes
“Before she would allow us on the floors we did an immersion experience which was them putting you in a wheelchair, putting headphones on, putting glasses on covered in vaseline so you had trouble seeing, oven mats on your hands, giving you a pencil and asking you to write… it was an eye opening experience”
“I couldn’t believe the neglect I was seeing, I had never seen that amount of dental disease”
“He didn’t think there was a great enough need here, and I wanted to prove him wrong”
“I thought all you have to do is treat these people with compassion and respect and use your training”
“Dental equipment is not meant to go on the road by the way, especially in Minnesota pot hole country”
“You definitely need to have a sense of humor working in this field”
“These people are really just like us, there are more similarities than there are differences”
“If you go into hygiene for the right reason, to help people, working with special needs populations isn’t going to be that different”
“I sleep well at night”
Links
Maureens Email:
mjohnson@appletree.com
Sharitys Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sharetherdhlove/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel One homepage: http://dentalpodcastnetworkchannelone.otcpn.libsynpro.com/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel Two homepage:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dental-podcast-networks-channel-two/id1478530429
More from Protecting our Public Health Podcast: https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/protectingourpublichealth/
