Transcript
Speaker: Dental Fuel, the podcast that focuses on what no one else is talking about. Mistakes. The dental world is full of before and afters and no one is talking about the middle. Dental Fuel brings you the unspoken in -between. Dental Fuel is brought to you by Ignite DDS Coaching, empowering dentists to build self -determined futures.
Speaker: Together, we're shaping the next generation of leaders in dentistry. Happy New Year, Dental Fuel listeners, and welcome back to season three. We're so excited to bring new guests this season with new mistakes and lessons along the way. Picking off season three, we have Lauren King. an accomplished dental hygienist who has made her mark by working in various states across the United States. Lauren has practiced as a travel hygienist in seven states due to her multiple licenses. Apart from her clinical practice, Lauren is a dynamic speaker and educator. She has a passion and dives into significant topics like human trafficking awareness, airway health, and the human experience in dentistry.
Speaker: In this first episode, Lauren talks about her unique journey in the world of dentistry and beyond. She talks about her life, career, and travels. And of course, we dive into a clinical mistake. Let's listen in. Lauren King, welcome to Dental Fuel. How you doing today?
Speaker: I am doing better than I deserve. That's what I will say, better than I deserve. So really, really well. Thank you for having me. yeah Thanks so much for being here with me today. i'm I'm so excited to hear about your story in life and for our listeners to hear about it as well too and get to know you a little bit more. But Lauren, where are you coming to us from today? I'm currently based in San Diego. I moved here back in January. Very cool. Are are you a California native?
Speaker: I'm not. So I've actually lived in eight states in the last 10 years. Wow. Okay. So I've moved around quite a bit, but luckily being a dental hygienist, I'm licensed in seven states at this point. And so it's pretty easy to to move around like that, but I'm originally from Memphis, Tennessee. Oh, very good. Okay. Cool. Cool. And Lord, tell me a little bit about what you're doing practice wise right now.
Speaker: So I am primarily speaking as of now ah globally, but also I am still practicing clinically here and there as a, I guess what you would call now a travel hygienist in one of the seven states that I'm licensed in. I'm not licensed here in California yet, so I'm having to go to other states to practice, but I'm doing that. And then of course teaching as well. And I actually just launched a life coaching business.
Speaker: so and Congratulations to you. Thank you. It's my little like baby right now. It's only three weeks old. so but it's It's honestly the one job I would do for free. It's it's incredible. I love it. yeah That's awesome. That's wonderful to hear. and Lauren, tell me a little bit about some of the courses that you teach.
Speaker: I'm primarily booked for human trafficking awareness in the dental industry and also airway health. and Neither one of them have anything to do with each other. I like to say that because people always look at me like, wait, what? ah so yeah other yeah you know Other than both issues that are killing millions of people every day. so Absolutely. and Very important. Very important for us in the profession.
Speaker: Yes, yes, both of them. And then of course I teach a but relative dental hygiene productivity and education course, essentially teaching hygienists how to talk to their patients, how to treat the patient as they should, you know, the highest standard of care. But also I felt like in school, nobody teaches you how to have a hard conversation with their patient. Like they just don't. Very true. And I remember asking a group of hygienists one day I was talking to,
Speaker: there was probably 150 people in the room and one person raised their hand and said that they felt comfortable having a hard conversation with their patient about disease. And so for me, yeah, it's like we're just we're not prepared. So I teach that and then I am now delving more into outside of the dental industry and speaking about what I call the human experience, which is the one thing that we all share no matter what, no matter what we look like, no matter what the inside is like, it's if you strip us all down, that's what all all of us share in comments, so.
Speaker: some, uh, some deep stuff. Yeah, that, that is really deep. Uh, but wonderful things that you're talking about it. And I'm so happy that you're, you know, you're passionate about it and, uh, they are important topics and Lauren, just to shift a little bit before we get into the nitty gritty here, I was reading through your bio and I read that you enjoy skydiving and have done several skydiving adventures. Tell us more.
Speaker: Yes. So I will say I am retired and I have jumped solo 34 times. I used to have my license. It's not active anymore. You have to keep up with like like your recurrency and all of that stuff. And the reason I am retired at 34 jumps is because I almost impaled myself into a barbed wire fence in Hawaii.
Speaker: And That's so scary. It was terrifying. And the reason it happened is because so you in skydiving, you have a parachute over your head, of course, and that parachute and the wind and everything determines how quickly or not quickly you burn altitude. And so I was on too big of a parachute and due to the wind and everything from the ocean, I could not burn altitude like what I'm used to. i I fall pretty fast is what I'm used to. So I technically overshot, I guess you could say, my landing and literally landed right in front of the fence. So I was done. You have solidified my decision never never to do that.
Speaker: Listen, it's one of the safest sports that there is. oh It is a sport, but any skydiver will tell you if someone gets hurt in skydiving, it's the skydiver's fault. I have heard this. Yes, it is one of the safest sports that there is. so don't let my stupidity of not advocating for myself. And I knew that the the wing loading of the parachute was not what it should have been, but I was a new skydiver. I didn't want to overstep my bounds with my coach and all of these things. So it was like, well, he knows what he's doing more than I do. I haven't jumped here before, but no, you have to advocate for yourself, right? It's, you have to, your life depends on it sometimes. It's so, so important. What an important message in skydiving and in life, advocating for yourself.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%. Lauren, let's dive into it. Here at Dental Fuel, we are dedicated to learning from each other's mistakes and sharing mistakes so that way we can grow together and, you know, just grow as ah individuals in the profession of dentistry and grow as a whole. But to kick us off, I would love to know about a clinical mistake that you have remembered making and how that has impacted the way that you practice now.
Speaker: So when I was starting out in my career as a dental hygienist, I'm going on seven years now. And you know, I feel like in the beginning, like we were just saying, you're, you're scared to have those hard conversations and You're scared that you're going to overstep, even though we are the provider, we should be advocating for our patients. A lot of times, especially with new hygienists, you don't have the confidence to overstep a doctor, to be honest, and you know advocate for your patients. Say, no doc, respectfully.
Speaker: This isn't enough. you know We need to do X, Y, and Z for the patient. It takes a lot to overstep your boss like that, and it is you know overstepping. So I had a patient that was not a healthy patient, bleeding everywhere. We had enough time to do SRP, but the doctor did not want to do it. They were scared that they were going to lose the patient, and that the patient wouldn't you know pay for treatment, and then we wouldn't get anything out of it. We wouldn't get any production out of it. right And so I just did the pro -feed and then three months later, this patient comes back and she sits in my chair and she's crying.
Speaker: And I look at her and I was like, what's going on? And she told me, she was like, I just broke up with my boyfriend or really my boyfriend just broke up with me because my mouth has been bleeding. And I just looked at her and immediately my entire, like everything sank because that was my fault. I didn't advocate for her. I knew she wasn't healthy. I knew she needed an SRP and me being timid and no one in school teaching me how to overstep or how to respectfully advocate for your patient, I let it go and that day I did the SRP, the doctor and I did kind of get into it.
Speaker: And I advocated for my patient, but the mistake was I didn't do it the first time and it caused her emotional trauma along the way. And I think a lot of times we forget that the things that we don't do for our patients, while it might take a while for us to see that it actually hurt them in the long run, it does eventually hurt them. So we have to keep the mentality of, yes, we're usually dealing with chronic disease as something that's happened slowly over time, but It doesn't mean that the impact is any less. It just takes longer for it to happen. What a powerful message, again, in the importance of advocating for yourself. And I think that that can be challenging for, you know, new grads, whether it's, you know, in dentistry as a dentist, as a dental hygienist, or even a seasoned person in a new setting.
Speaker: know knowing how to speak to that, ah you know, more seasoned doctor or that established doctor in a practice and having those tough conversations. Those tough conversations are important for the sake of our patients sometimes. And so, yeah, that's challenging. I'm sorry that you were put into that situation and sorry to hear about your patient as well too, but I bet she was better off after you did that SRB.
Speaker: Yes, she was. and you know it's just i had to I had to do what I had to do and at that point i had it taught me a lot. You know it you can lose your job. i mean I've been in practices before where I've advocated for the patient now. you know i'm I'm definitely very serious about it.
Speaker: even down to airway, I'll be in a practice and I'll advocate for the patient and say, Hey doc, I don't know if you guys are implementing airway or not, but they need to be referred. And I said, they have, you know, X, Y, and Z going on. It's usually screaming a problem. And I've been asked to leave before I've been asked to leave the practice as a temp because I over set and I get it. I do. But at the same time, I'm like,
Speaker: With something as serious as breathing versus not breathing respectfully, I'm advocating for my patient, even if you ask me to leave. So you learn a lot in those really tough situations.
Speaker: Definitely some periods of of growth for sure. And being asked to leave, that's that's very strong. Ready to take the next step in your journey? Book an intro call with Ignite DDS Coaching today and level up your future in dentistry. Thanks for tuning in to our first episode of 2025. We're so excited to continue our conversation with Lauren King, as well as future conversations with future guests. Join us next week when we talk about a financial mistake.
