Welcome to my series on using my toolbox as a dental hygienist to improving my own life and creating more happiness.  ADPIE for the layman out there refers to a process of care that takes the clinician and patient through assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation in efforts to journey with our patients to their oral health and overall health goals.  This blog series will share how I am working towards having smarter success as an entrepreneurial, independent hygienist that is measured not just in billing and production but in personal happiness shared with great relationships with my family and friends.

I originally started working through this method January 2016 because I recognized that as an independent dental hygienist and entrepreneur I was losing focus on one of the pillar foundations of my life – my family and closest friends.   I subscribe to a great blog by a wonderful priest, Father Claire Watrin, out of Our Way of Holiness retreat house in Hinton, Alberta.  My busy schedule sometimes stops me from opening his emails but one notification hit me like a ton of bricks! The title of the email was “Are You Independent?” and the first line was “Do you like being independent? Standing on your own is good?”

Well yes I thought.  Hey if this wasn’t a message intended straight from God’s lips to me, I didn’t know what could be.  So I read on…”What happens if your arm or leg wants to stand on its own and be independent? Amputated? Sure it would be alive for a while but then rot and die!”  He went on to discuss how we are not alone, we are part of the Body of Christ, His church.  We are created to be in union with God and our fellow man.  In more secular terms, no man is an island.  So yes, I knew my life needed an overhaul, a transformation, a prescription of treatment to get me back on track.  There is a way to balance faith, family and work and I needed to start getting my life in order so I wouldn’t end up with a successful dental hygiene business but no one to share the success with.

Assessment, key to the dental hygiene process, is the start off point we all work through with each patient that sits in our chair.  We observe and assess specific measures in this phase of care.  In the same way, introspective assessment and self “interviewing” is the starting point for the process that can lead to effective personal change and improvement.   This is not a news flash for many people.  It is really common sense that if we take time to reflect on our day we would become less reactive and more proactive in living life.

I remember the day I went for the admission interview before getting into the dental hygiene program at the University.  When the interviewer asked what area of my life I thought I could improve most was, I inwardly smiled as I answered with what I had rehearsed for this very moment.  I told the panel that I was working at actively examining my day each night before bed so that I could learn from my experiences and effect greater self improvement.   

But herein lies the problem. We as humans are riddled with failed attempts at crossing the disconnect between recognizing wisdom and acting on wisdom. Closer to home, we see many examples of this.  Our patients know that flossing can prevent decay, yet research reports a small percentage of people are habitual flossers.  Nighttime snacking leads to weight gain, yet how many of us carry muffin tops to match our “after hour” eating habits?

So over the years I have had some success with practicing a nightly examination of conscience of sorts  with the intent being to become a better version of myself.  I would like to say I never miss, (I would also like to say I floss every single night) but the truth is that I have stumbled to bed many a night and numbly put my head on the pillow and quickly welcomed sleep in order to shut off the day’s stressors.

What I haven’t really tackled however was using this reflective process with the specific intent to better my relationship with my spouse and my children.  What I am talking about is doing specific relationship assessments within my inner circles beyond whether or not I have wronged someone with harsh words or attitude. Recently, I’ve read research that  points at measurable characteristics that set apart successful family dynamics.  I intend to try and review these factors in my own life in order to avoid alienating those people I rely most on for support and success.  Good relationships are characterized by their communication, cohesion/connectedness, defined value system, adaptability,  clear role delineation, and time spent together.

I have started assessing these measures in my own experience.  I can tell you that I am excited about where this idea is taking me and how it is affecting those in my life.  If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to my website now so you can share in this self discovery process I have begun.  I look forward to meeting more of you and growing through  the sharing  in your comments as well.

What I will say for now is that I’ve decided to try this out not at night when my head hits the pillow but to carve out some other habitual time that could work to do this.  I have often told my patients that to form a new habit, one should pair it with something that they already do consistently.  For instance, if they watch the nightly news, keep the flossers beside their TV chair and floss along to the day’s current affairs.   Myself, I spend a lot of time in my mobile dental hygiene van, driving not only to my storefront clinic but also to surrounding schools and aboriginal communities as well.  This driving time has become the ADPIE moment in my day.  I love music and very rarely do I drive without some tune blasting out of the speakers.  With this new plan though, I will not “tune in” until I have gone through the introspective interview process and subsequent quick diagnosis, planning and evaluation of recent efforts.  It doesn’t take as long as you may think, and so far, I am seeing great results on the horizon.  Here’s to the journey! 🙂