Tavy Alford, Class of 2022
Tavy was ready to help at the City Smiles Dental office!
Over the summer, Tavy worked her first job at City Smiles Dental. Through her work, she was able learn about the many different aspects of dental hygiene and office logistics. She first started working in the front, making appointments, getting medical files, and managing schedules. From there, Tavy worked her way to the back, cleaning rooms and setting up for procedures. She was then able to work in the lab, taking X-rays and organizing lab work or equipment, such as dentures and partials. She also gained experience working on the administrative side of the office, by learning how to do payroll and filing all of the expense reports for the last year. On working hands-on with all these different areas of the dental office, Tavy said, “It was a really rewarding experience and I got to learn a lot about a field that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to experience.”
What inspired you to work this summer at City Smiles Dental?
I wanted to work at City Smiles because I have always been interested in the medical field. People usually forget about dentistry being a part of the medical field, as I had. I wanted to work there because I knew so little about it. I’ve studied a lot about other more traditional practices of medicine and dentistry just never came up. I used the opportunity to work there to broaden my horizon and understanding of the body as a whole.
What’s one lesson you took away from the experience?
I learned that dentistry is actually a really intricate field. People forget that the mouth is a part of the body as well and that you have to take care of it as such. Taking care of your mouth is like a first line of defense for a lot of illnesses and should be treated that way.