Claire Jeong is the founder of StudentRDH.com, dentaltoaster.com, and smarterDA.com
She has also created Wake Up Memory tips to help us remember pathology, pharmacology, and so much more.
In this episode, Claire helps us to remember the eight steps to chart an oral lesion.
Check out her website, dentaltoaster.com for more info and other great CE courses, including one by Michelle!
For your viewing pleasure this TIPisode has been transcribed:
Michelle Strange: A Tale of Two Hygienists presents this week’s TIPisode: Quick and easy tips to keep you up to date, and presented by the experts in the profession. Now, get ready for your unofficial TIPisode.
Claire Jeong: Hello. This is Claire. I’m the founder of StudentRDH and WakeUp Memory. Today, we’re going to talk about eight steps to chart an oral lesion. Have you had this patient that had a lesion but you didn’t know what to put in the patient’s chart? Well, don’t worry about it because today we are going to learn how to put those eight steps — we’re going to memorize it together using the WakeUp Memory technique.
Now, this is, really, what we have used for thousands of years because we didn’t have cell phones, not even lap tops, or not even pens at some point in history. So those eight steps are very simple. However, we’re going to use a weird story, so stay with me. Let’s start.
You have a launch party for a new magazine. Think about an artist you like, or a movie start. I’m going to say Kanye West. So I wanted to go to his house, the VIP launch party for the magazine. To get there, I use my GPS, right? So GPS is the trigger for me to think about the location of the oral lesion. Now, you get there, the beautiful door opens, you get out of the car, and the assistant is distributing the magazine. It’s giving you a magazine because you remember it was a launch party for the magazine, right? So, here, distribution. You’re talking about whether the lesion is localized, generalized, well defined, or poorly defined.
After getting this magazine, yous [sic] enter the house. The house, though, you needed a key, and that key look [sic] like a scorpion, a scorpion. So I’m trying to have you memorize scorpion shape — well, just shape — for the oral lesion. And you continue. The first thing you notice is that everything is gold. Everything is gold. So, now, gold gets you to think about the color, the color of the oral lesion. And you go down the hallways, and the hallway has many, many snake [sic]. They’re huge snakes, and the snakes are just going up and down. Those huge snakes are scary, but you brave through the hallways. Okay, so, snake. The huge snake gives you a trigger for the size of it. And, after that, you go to the backyard, and you are greeted by someone who’s offering you a jello shot. Now, the jello shot, it has a specific consistency, right? The way it feels. So I want you to think about consistency, whether the oral lesion has pus in it or is hard or many different types of consistency.
Let’s continue. After a good while, you want to go to the bathroom, right? You go to the bathroom. You ask the butler, and he says, “Go up the stairs and make a right.” And you go there. The first thing you see is a tiger, a huge tiger. But he is nice. The tiger is nice, and you decided to pet the tiger. So you touch the fur, and what does it feel like? Rich, smooth, and strong. So, here, we’re talking about the texture, the texture of the oral lesions. And, finally, you meet the star of the event, which is Kanye in our case, and you think about this being a historical moment. You take out your phone, and you take a selfie. Now, this is historical.
Now, I’m going to get into how you have to chart it in your chart about the patient’s history. I know we looked at the eight steps. The story is very, very, very strange. However, if you think about this, your brain is going to love it because this is not boring anymore. So let’s do it one more time together. You were invited to the launch party of a new magazine. You get to the Kanye’s house. You needed GPS. GPS gives you location. The assistant is distributing magazine. Here, distribution. And you continue. You have a key, and the key is the shape of a scorpion. So you’re thinking about the shape of the oral lesion. You open the door and inside is all color of gold, right? Gold gives you the color. And then, in the hallway, do you remember the animal? It was the snake, right? But are they small, or are they big? They’re huge. So think about the size here for the oral lesion. And, in the backyard, what were you handed? A jello shot. So, now, you think about the consistency of the jello shot and think about the consistency of the oral lesion. Then, you go upstairs to the bathroom at some point, and what animal do you meet? A tiger. Here, you touch the fur. It is rich. It is strong. It is smooth. We’re talking about the texture here. And, lastly, you finally meet the star. You take out your phone and take a selfie because it’s historical. You think about the history, the patient’s history.
So those are the eight steps you need in order to chart an oral lesion. I hope this was helpful. And if you have any questions, you can go to wakeupmemory.com. You can also go to dentaltoaster.com. I hope we’re doing a great service for our patients because now, finally, we’re able to look at everything the patient has in terms of oral lesion and be able to chart that properly. Thank you.
Michelle Strange: We hope you enjoyed this week’s TIPisode. Be sure to reach out to our guest experts and let them know how helpful their tips were. Follow A Tale of Two Hygienists on Facebook, Instagram, and head over to ataleoftwohygienists.com and subscribe to our newsletter. You can also email us at ataleoftwohygienists@gmail.com, and keep listening for more awesome content from your unofficial dental hygiene podcast.
