Today was my first day in the OB clinic. I got to work early and met Chris to go set up our table in the waiting room. Chris has lots of dental posters and facts dedicated to newborn dental care that she lent to me today. It was very helpful as I not only had the chance to interview the women, but also to teach them a little bit about caring for their newborns. Once the patients started rolling in things got really fun and exciting. I had bags filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss that I handed to each person who took the survey. It was really interesting to take note of the ages of some of the women who were there in the OB clinic. Many were in their twenties or thirties, but I saw my fair share of teenage mothers. This just speaks to the mindset of the Native Alaskan and the cultural differences between some of those living in Alaska and the rest of the United States.
Each woman I interviewed was very thoughtful and helpful in filling out the survey. Some of the early trends that I am noticing between my surveys from Hoonah and my surveys today are that many people want two things: 1) To have access to dental information in a technologically savvy way, and 2) To have access to dental information in a way that does not require them to spend lots of extra effort outside of their scheduled appointments or visits to the dental clinic. Also, I am noticing that there is a huge push for more information on preventative care. This is great as it is already a goal of the SEARHC dental team to make dentistry a more preventative profession so this will give me the most support and backing as I begin to actually develop the patient education material.
I spent the day in the clinic and interviewed 17 women. It was a great experience and one that I am looking forward to repeating over the next two Thursdays. Before I went back to my home I spoke with Dr. Hort about Sitka. We booked my rooms in the Mount Edgecumbe Hospital Short-term Housing and I purchased a ticket for the ferry. I also got in contact with Martha Pearson and Litia Garrison to confirm that we would be meeting next Tuesday to discuss how they revamped their old patient education materials.
After such a beautiful day yesterday the weather today was a bit more typical of Juneau in early June. The clouds hung in the sky and a light drizzle fell throughout the day. Like I posted a few weeks ago, I don't feel bad skipping out on some work afternoons in early May as I will now be stuck in the office for the rest of June. I am still trying to shake my cold so I did not do much tonight. The Alaskan Time Zone is great as I am able to watch East coast sporting events (like the NBA finals) and still get to bed at a reasonable hour.
Tomorrow will be a pretty uneventful day as I will dedicate it entirely to calling my patients who missed an appointment over the past week. Since I was out of town and in the OB clinic today I have quite a few phone calls to make!
More to come tomorrow...
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I never thought about dental care in an OB clinic until your project. Very interesting. I bet it feels good to be getting into the meat now and already picking up on some trends. Also, you make me want to root for the Cardinals! :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm really glad that it is a subgroup that we decided to focus on. There is a lot to be said of the correlation between a mother's dental health and that of her children. It is especially important for mothers here as many are in their early 20's or teens.
ReplyDeleteYou could do worse than rooting for the Redbirds!!!