My Working Day Bridget Murphy, dental hygienist from Ballincollig in Cork, has seen the industry grow in the past few years
I had been a dental nurse for a number of years when I decided to go back to college and qualify as a dental hygienist.
It was a full-time two-year course run in conjunction with UCC, which I took at the dental college in Cork, and from where I qualified in June 2002.
Geographically my average day is quite varied as I work in five different dental practices, which sounds chaotic, but really the actual work routine is the same every day.
Mainly I work under contract to a dentist, who refers his patients to a hygienist - usually for two types of treatment. The first is a thorough scale and polish, which would have been done in a limited form by the dentist himself in the past. The second most common referral is for gum treatment.
Oral health education forms a big part of what I do. A fact people are always surprised to hear is that three-quarters of the Irish population have gum disease.
It is often a painless condition, for instance, you will rarely hear people say, "My gums are killing me!" The majority are unaware that they have gum disease.
Generally in Ireland tooth decay is on the decrease, mainly due to the addition of fluoride into our water system, but unfortunately gum disease is on the increase.
Many factors are contributing to this. One of the main reasons is that people are brushing teeth and not gums. One of the warning signs of gum disease is bleeding gums, and patients often think that you shouldn't brush your teeth if they are bleeding. The opposite is in fact the case - you should employ a softer brush but definitely continue brushing your gums.
I work with all ages of clients, from four or five years old right up to the elderly. This industry is a new one in Ireland whereas in the US and Britain, the dental hygiene sector is thriving.
Here we are still in the mindset whereby we go to the dentist only if we are in trouble. But attitudes are changing, for instance I now have patients who come to me monthly.
I try to teach patients how to brush their teeth correctly. I would say that 99 per cent of patients who come to me don't know how to brush correctly. Also, flossing is the most fundamental way of dealing with tooth decay and gum disease.
The main difference with patients nowadays is that the majority want to hold onto their teeth rather than get dentures.
I am very fortunate now in that I have a regular client base although I rarely leave the surgery before six in the evening.