In this short interview, dental hygienist Magdalena Gocoł answers the seven questions we pose to dental professionals from all over the world. Meet the approach of the laureate in the competition for the best hygienist in Poland.
What routines do you find most critical for maintaining proper oral health?
Most important is to brush daily and clean interdental spaces through the proper use of interdental brushes.
What does the word prevention mean to you?
Prevention means taking good measures to prevent cavities and oral diseases. In short – keeping a beautiful smile for life.
What is your ‘golden rule’ or advice that you tell your patients often?
Awareness, knowledge, and information; that is what I try to get across to my patients first. Secondly, emphasising the need to brush teeth properly and to use interdental brushes can never be said enough. And the third rule is to go for regular check-ups.
What’s the biggest challenge of your job?
Making patients aware of the important role of a dental hygienist and how much professional hygiene contributes to oral health.
Welcome to the Billion Healthy Mouths Club
Proper routines in prevention are the future of dentistry – that’s why we at Curaden launched the Billion Healthy Mouths Club – a community of dental professionals committed to the idea of having proper routines in prevention and a holistic approach to dentistry. Dental hygienist Magdalena Gocoł is one of those dental professionals who shares these values, and we proudly present his experience and thoughts with other like-minded people from the field. Keep reading our Gently magazine to discover more interviews with forward-thinking professionals from around the world.
What’s the thing that you like about your job the most?
Conversations with the patients, and showing them the effects before and after the procedure.
What’s the most important thing in terms of an oral care routine, from your point of view?
Taking care of the interdental spaces, because this is where caries – invisible at first – often appear.
What’s the biggest oral health myth that you fight against?
The myth I fight the most is the belief that milk teeth do not need to be brushed because they will fall out anyway.
Get the patient informed: Magdalena Gocoł’s card and questionnaire for patients
To get her patients more familiar with dental hygiene practices, Magdalena has created a “Modern Card of Oral Prophylaxis” to hand over to her patients. This card informs her patients what procedures they’ll have during the appointment, what to do after their dental hygiene visit, what tools should be used at home, and when they have their next appointment. To evaluate her patient’s oral health and home oral care routines she also created a questionnaire, “Interview about hygiene”, which includes questions like:
- Do you know what dental calculus is?
- Do you smoke cigarettes?
- Do you feel there’s an unpleasant taste or smell in your mouth?
- How often do you brush your teeth?
- What toothbrush do you use? (manual, electric, sonic)
- Do you floss or use interdental brushes?
- Do you experience gum bleeding during toothbrushing or flossing?
- Do you like the colour of your teeth?
- Have you ever had your teeth cleaned by a dental hygienist?
Magdalena Gocoł is a certified dental hygienist currently working in Koszalin, Poland. In 2017, she was a laureate in the competition for the best hygienist in Poland, where she placed third. Magdalena is iTOP trained and known for introducing and practicing new standards in oral hygiene. She is a creator of an innovative leaflet and hygienic questionnaire for patients, and also publishes articles in various trade magazines. For more information follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
