Working

Jennifer Kui Lan Hew, RDH, BS

After one year working in a private practice, Jennifer Kui Lan Hew, RDH, BS, knew she wanted her career to go in a different direction. Hew now does everything from working with cancer patients to educating future dental hygienists. "I was looking for variety. I never really wanted to work in a 'normal' dental environment … [In my current job,] I'm constantly learning new things, facts, and skills. Just the constant mental stimulation of working in health care is sometimes humbling and grounding."

At the Louisiana State University (LSU) Dental School, Hew lectures dental hygiene students on hospital dentistry. She is also their clinical instructor when they see hospital patients at the dental clinic. Hew teaches them to read medical charts and familiarizes them with operating room protocols and the procedures that will be performed.

The majority of her time, however, is spent at the Medical Center of Louisiana, on the Charity and University Campuses, where she works with medically compromised patients. Hew's duties include performing oral prophylaxes on patients needing dental consultations prior to receiving radiation, chemotherapy, or an organ transplant. She also educates patients on the importance of good oral home care before, during, and after their medical procedures.

Hew's work with head- and neck-cancer patients includes preparing them for possible oral complications that could occur due to radiation and chemotherapy treatments, such as reduced salivary flow, mucositis, and chemical erosion of teeth. Hew sees these patients prior to their treatments for oral health care consultations and from then on, on a regular basis. She notes that it can be difficult for cancer patients to find a dental care provider.

"I am fortunate to work with the only maxillofacial prosthetic clinic in Louisiana. We are able to comprehensively provide dental care as well as nonsurgical reconstruction by fabrication of prosthetics."

Transplant patients have their own special concerns. Depending on the type of transplant, the patient may not be able to receive any elective dental care for six months after their procedure, so all fillings, extractions, periodontal treatments and the like must be taken care of beforehand. Dental care must be coordinated with the patient's physician to cover issues such as positional considerations (for heart patients) and whether the patient needs pretreatment with antibiotics.

Working with children is also an important part of Hew's work. At the dental school, she works with underprivileged children. On the medical center campuses, she provides oral health care education. "I go to the pediatric outpatient clinic for National Children's Dental Health Month, in February, to give oral hygiene presentations and answer questions from parents. I do the same in the inpatient clinic, but go room to room because the children may not be able to move around a lot."

Other aspects of her job include teaching oral hygiene in the obstetrics-gynecology and diabetes clinics and performing oral prophylaxis under general anesthesia for patients who are severely mentally retarded or otherwise too unstable to be seen in clinic.

In her "spare" time, Hew lectures to renal transplant groups and Head Start programs. She also participates in community health fairs and organizes continuing education programs for the clinic residents and staff.

Hew says that one of the most rewarding aspects of her job is helping to "mold" dental hygiene students. "It's important to make them aware of the complexity of dealing with medically compromised patients. Usually as students, they are not in a position to come into contact with these kinds of patients or know how to manage them." She also finds it fulfilling to treat hospital patients. "You feel you are really doing something to help somebody, since the majority of these patients are indigent. Many of them have never experienced dental care, and no one has taken care of their mouths before. You get to start from ground zero with them and they are grateful to you for the time and care you have given them."

An aptitude test in college helped Hew get a firmer grasp on what she already knew about herself--namely, that she liked helping people, was good with her hands, had a good sense of spatial relations, and could work well with mirror images. Coming from a long line of health care professionals, she was always interested in the medical field. Dental hygiene was a natural career choice.

Hew received her bachelor of science degree from the Louisiana State University HSC School of Dentistry. She expects to receive her master of science degree in health care management from the College of Business at the University of New Orleans in 2006.

"Being a hygienist is such a rewarding career," Hew says. "You get so much self-fulfillment from helping people and knowing you improved and touched someone else's life."

This edition of Working was prepared by Julie Edwards.