By Zachary Horner, The Sanford Herald

桑福德——艾米·马修斯想要一些不同于职业的东西.

她在人力资源部干了几年，然后为了生孩子而辞职. 但当她的女儿上幼儿园时，她准备重新开始.

“我一直很喜欢这所学校，以及它为我们社区所做的一切," said Matthews, 她是中央卡罗莱纳社区学院牙科卫生项目的临床兼职教员和临床助理. "I wanted to do something where I could help people."

She found the program she now teaches in, 在牙医诊所工作了几年，然后回来当老师. Matthews had taught different things, 特别是主日学和假日圣经学校的课程, since she was 17.

"I always loved to teach," she said. "I had never even thought of doing that, 但它结合了两者——我喜欢卫生，也喜欢教书."

马修斯在这个位于华盛顿大学的项目中任教.B. 在南万斯街的柳条校区，待了近两年. She spoke to The Herald about her routine, 她与学生一起工作的诊所，以及为什么牙科项目很难.

What is your daily routine?

这学期的周一和周三，作为临床兼职教员，我们在诊所. 所以二年级(学生)在上午和下午看病人. 所以我通常八点到这里，为这一天做准备. 我通常会进去和我所有的学生打招呼，确保他们为这一天做好了准备. Then we start seeing patients at 9.

So morning patient, afternoon patient, and then usually after clinic, it's wrapping up with the students. 通常我会回去检查他们给病人做的记录以确保他们的记录是正确的. Cleaning up, shutting down everything. This semester, I'm the clinical assistant, which means those are the days when I'm ordering, counting inventory, things like that in the clinic. 所以每个学期都会有所不同，这也是我喜欢这份工作的原因.

What's it like to teach dental hygiene?

With the second years, 你想亲自动手，因为他们就要毕业了, they're going to be in the workforce soon. They're also preparing for boards. 我想亲自动手，帮助他们做好准备, 但我也必须知道什么时候该退一步，让他们自己接手, 当病人比较容易的时候或者我知道他们已经有了. 它是学习什么时候介入，什么时候退后，让他们自己取得成功的平衡.

今年5月即将毕业的2017届毕业生，我从他们的第一个学期开始就和他们在一起了. So I was with them in pre-clinic, where they had practice hours, where they were learning how to use their instruments. 所以我有幸和他们坐在一起，开始使用这些乐器. That's huge for them. And then from there, 我在他们第一年的诊所和他们一起当他们开始看病人的时候他们都很紧张, just learning what calculus, that hardened plaque, felt like on the teeth. 现在我在他们第二年的诊所陪着他们. 我很荣幸能在推荐正规买球平台一直与他们在一起.

How does the clinic work?

人们会想，“哦，我已经很久没有洗牙了. 我不想成为学生们的挑战." But that's what we need. 我们需要很长时间没有洗牙的病人. 我们即将毕业的二年级学生，他们需要挑战. 有时他们很难找到，因为他们必须找到自己的病人. 如果你没有家(牙医)或者你没有保险或者资金不足, 我们是任何人洗牙的好地方. Our students have a need for the harder patients.

Everything we do is free. 我们不做任何修复工作——牙根管，填充物，诸如此类. 但我们会给你拍x光片，你去看我们的牙医，他会给你推荐. It's a great service for Sanford. 我希望李县有更多的人知道这所学校. 我们可以定期清洁，我们可以做深度清洁，我们做氟化物治疗.

你能教给牙科病人的最重要的事情是什么?

We strive for our students to be professional. You've got to have the ability to clean teeth, 但我们的学生在毕业后会变得更强. 我们希望我们的学生毕业时具备价值观和专业素养.

大多数人坐在你的椅子上时都不高兴. 你在为病人提供服务，所以在任何时候都保持专业是很重要的. 你必须以一种让你的病人在治疗过程中感到舒适的方式表现自己.

What's your favorite part of your job?

I just love the students. They're hard on themselves. This is not an easy program. There's a lot of tears in this program. 有时候，如果是一些我可以开个玩笑的事情，可以减轻心情，而不会崩溃, I try to do that. 我只是爱学生，尽我所能去爱.

Why is the program so hard?

Part of it is you're learning totally new skills. 我们的一些学生已经完成了(学院的)牙科辅助(项目)。, so they have some of a background. But with assisting, 你不需要使用一些相同的仪器和做一些与卫生学相同的事情. In the hygiene program, you're learning something totally new, something that you've never done before. 除非你是卫生学家或者你在卫生学校，否则你不能碰这些仪器.

当你学习新东西的时候，你会犯错误. 这些学生在学习过程中一直都是a或者b. They're not used to having mistakes and lower grades. 你可以在临床中犯严重错误，然后得到零分. That's not OK with them. They've got to learn to adapt to that.

And then part of it is finding their own patients. 他们必须带来他们自己的病人并且有特定类型的病人.

Why is this program important?

We're offering a great service to our community. It's free dental services. 口腔卫生和牙科辅助是正在发展的领域. There's lots of opportunity.