Filiberto Jimenez

Professor Arini

ENG 102-11

March 2, 2021

I sat with Aisha Ramirez on February 24, 2021 to discuss the importance of keeping up

with your dental and oral hygiene. She is currently a student dental hygienist at the Northern

Arizona University Dental Clinic. I met Aisha through an appointment I set up through the clinic

and she happened to be the student that performed my x-rays all the way through the actual

cleaning. She mentioned that I was a unique case due to the fact that I have not seen a dentist or

dental hygienist in over 7 years. I am sure a good population within college students may or may

have not seen a dental professional in quite some time. She was ecstatic to work with me. I had a

great conversation with her after my appointment and got to know her a little better. I decided to

interview her because I did something that was detrimental to my health which I should not have

done and that was putting my dental hygiene off to the side. I interviewed her to receive

information about why people should not wait to see a dentist and what they can do at home as

well to prevent future dental issues.

Leading up to the interview I decided to do some little research about dental hygiene

from renowned professionals. The information that I found from other interviews were very

similar in many ways. From what diseases can be progressed by poor oral hygiene to how often

you should brush; it seemed that the data were common. I had to find information prior to the

interview so I could gain a better understanding of what optimal dental hygiene actually looks

like.
Me: Hi everyone, I am sitting here currently with Aisha Ramirez, who is currently a student

dental hygienist at Northern Arizona University. We are going to talk today about the importance

of keeping up with your oral health. Now tell me about yourself and why you became a dental

hygienist?

Aisha: I became a dental hygienist because I just wanted to be some type of medical career

because first handedly I saw the minority community not get the proper medical care or oral

care. So I just wanted to make an impact and make a change and as a minority myself I am able

to make more of an impact on these communities.

Me: Okay perfect! So why is it a problem to ignore your teeth and your mouth as a whole?

Aisha: It’s not okay to ignore your oral health because you're just letting an infection occur.

Let’s say you don’t brush your teeth, you're just letting that bacteria grow more and mature. I

really like the expression of “ if your arm is bleeding are you just going to ignore it?” You are

obviously not. That is a good metaphor for how you shouldn't leave your mouth in a diseased

state. You want to be healthy orally and that makes an impact on your overall health.

Me: Usually people don't want to go to the dentist purely because of fear of the dentist. How do

you deal with patients with the so-called “white coat syndrome”?

Aisha: The way that I view patients is more like building a relationship with them. I think that is

a priority because you want them to trust you, you want them to feel comfortable with you, and it

is really important to make them feel more safe for them to get to know you as a person and not

just a dentist. It is also very important to understand them and also explain everything to them

about what you are doing. You don’t want them to be there scared; you want to let them know

the sounds that they are going to hear and what exactly is happening. You want to walk them

through the appointment and make them feel comfortable.

Me: Okay good. How does an infection start?

Aisha: Right after, even like 30 minutes of brushing your teeth you are already having bacteria

start to build up in your mouth and that is normal. But you are supposed to stop the process of

them maturing. So if you stop brushing your teeth, you are letting that bacteria stay in there.

You’re letting them mature eventually becoming calculus and calculus leads to periodontal

disease.

Me: You did mention periodontal disease just now; is that reversible at all?

Aisha: No. So once you have periodontal disease you are always going to have it. Mainly

because of the bone loss that you have because your bone can’t grow back. It is about

maintaining the periodontal healthy state where you are taking out all that calculus so you don’t

have any more bone loss.

Me: With these diseases, will you always feel pain?

Aisha: No. The interesting thing is that if you have periodontal disease it is painless. Gingivitis

is reversible. Let’s say you leave the gingivitis untreated, you eventually will not feel that pain

any more because at that point that is when you have periodontal disease. Since you’re not

feeling that pain you are going to let it keep progressing when you think you aren’t. You think

you are in a healthy state because you don't feel any pain.

Me: The tooth is made of the enamel right? Is that able to be rebuilt at all after it has been

deteriorated a little bit?

Aisha: No. Enamel cannot grow back. The way that enamel is mainly affected is by cavities. The

cavity will eat away that enamel. The way it's treated is we fill it in, but the enamel does not

grow back. It can progress into the root of the tooth and that is when it gets worse.
Me: Usually toothpastes have this element called fluoride, what other source can you get

fluoride from?

Aisha: The big way to get fluoride is through your community water.

Me: Why is it important for cities to have fluoridated water?

Aisha: What fluoride is is just a mineral that makes your teeth stronger so it prevents your teeth

from demineralizing. There is a pH level where your teeth start to eat away at itself. You want to

prevent that and the fluoride basically coats your teeth and keeps it from being very acidic.

Me: At the beginning of this interview you mentioned that you became a dental hygienist to

reach those in need, what are some popular programs at the moment to reach those with lack of

oral care?

Aisha: The really big program that I was part of in the past is AZMOM. What this project is is

that every year they have a location in Phoenix at the Arizona Fairgrounds and the one up here

north is at the NAU campus. Basically what it is it’s a bunch of volunteer dental assistants,

hygienists, dentists, oral surgeons that all go there to give their time to give free dental care for

those who aren’t regularly able to go to regular dentist appointments. Since COVID, it has

changed, so this past year we were not able to give care to that population as we normally would

unfortunately, but we were able to give out resources of where they can go to other dental

offices. We also gave them basic information about how to floss and why their dental health is

important and we gave out free toothbrushes, toothpastes, floss, mouthwash and all that good

stuff.

Me: Sounds like a very useful resource. Let’s get into daily habits that people usually have. How

does alcohol play a role in oral health?

Aisha: Alcohol does tend to dry out your mouth. It is good to have that saliva in your mouth to

keep the pH level for your teeth to not demineralize.

Me: The other big habit is tobacco. How does that affect your oral health?

Aisha: Tobacco is a very big one in hygiene since it can lead to stains on your teeth and it’s a

really big part of periodontal disease. So if you are a smoker or using any tobacco product, you

are more prone to periodontal disease than any other.

Me: There are always different numbers of how often you should visit a dental hygienist or a

dentist for that matter. What does regular appointments mean to you?

Aisha: Regular appointments are every six months just to keep checking on any changes in your

oral health. Also to check cavities that build up or if you have a big progression in periodontal

disease.

Me: Throughout your daily life, how often should we actually brush our teeth and why?

Aisha: You should be flossing and brushing your teeth twice a day and also a very big tip is,

after you eat to prevent cavities you can actually wash out your mouth with water.

Me: For those two times a day, how long should you brush for?

Aisha: Two minutes.

Me: Will that differ between populations?

Aisha: No.

Me: There new devices and we have also had whitening strips around in the past, do those

actually work at all?

Aisha: The whitening strips can help. There are a lot of brands out there. The big thing is that

they are very expensive, but honestly you can get some good whitening by just using basic

hydrogen peroxide. Using that as a mouth rinse helps a lot better, but it is important to remember
that you should not be using whitening strips if you have other conditions in your mouth that you

are not paying attention to. If you have a cavity, you need to fix that cavity before whitening

your teeth because you don’t want to leave it there.

Me: People usually have different toothbrushes; is there any preference if you have an electric or

manual toothbrush?

Aisha: It is way more effective to use a power toothbrush, specifically a rechargeable one. Just

because of the power of it; with a manual toothbrush you are not reaching enough as an electric

toothbrush. A battery powered toothbrush does not have as much power as a rechargeable one.

With a manual toothbrush you are not reaching that high of rotations per minute that for

example, an Oral B does or Sonicare. Those are the big electric toothbrushes. It is reaching more

plaque and it is able to take out more plaque than a manual toothbrush.

Me: Does the type or brand of toothpaste matter at all?

Aisha: In some ways yes. A big one you should look for on the back of a toothpaste you can see

the ingredients; stannous fluoride is a really good one as it helps with a lot of things. It obviously

has fluoride in it to prevent cavities and it also helps with sensitivity.

Me: This next question is one that people always forget; can you talk about how important

flossing is?

Aisha: A lot of people tend to leave flossing out of their daily oral routine. It is really important

to floss because you have that extra plaque in between your teeth. A good metaphor is you are

washing the outside of your car but not the inside. So you really want to get in there and get all

that plaque off for it not to build up to calculus.

Me: Well it sounds like there is a lot you can do to prevent diseases and cavities. Thank you for

your time and I hope this helps people in a lot of ways.

Aisha: Thank you so much.