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Dental Hygienist Case Study

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Lesa Lawrence was working as a dental hygienist and enjoyed her practice. She also liked to be a part of the team in her dental office. Lesa has been noticing the smell of alcohol from a dentist named Dr. Frank Harris. The dentist was coming back from lunch frequently smelling like alcohol. Lesa wanted to believe that it was the smell of mouth-rinse but was suspicious that it was alcohol. She talked about the issue with his dental assistant Corey, and she confirmed Lesa's suspicious that the dentist was acting unsteady or tentative. After weighting everything out Lesa suggested to the office manager that she wanted to report Dr. Harris to state dental society to help him with his addiction. However, the manager Debbie became protective of …show more content…
Any heath care professional cannot or should not perform appropriate dental care because of dependency on alcohol, drugs or other substances. Dr. Harris have been coming back to work after lunch intoxicated and treating patients in a unsteady state of mind.

Step 2: The dental hygienist, Lesa have been coming to work after lunch and started to notice that the dentist, Dr. Harris have been smelling like alcohol. After talking to his assistant Corey, she learned that the assistant have been helping the dentist to run things smoothly because of the dentist's impairment. After gathering all the information Lesa notified the office manager, Debbie, that she would have to report Dr.Harris to the state dental society. Debbie stated that the dentist have had this problem for awhile and all the staff members should work as a team and help Dr. Harris out.

Step 3: Lesa has two options. The first option will be to keep working in the office knowing that the dentist is not performing a quality care for his patients because he is doing it while being impaired. The dentist put patients at risk by involving in this illegal activity. The second option will be not listening to the staff members and report the dentist to the state dental

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