 Ok, it's been a while since I've written a blog post! I've been focusing on my YouTube channel and uploading a few videos a week :). Check it out here. What have I been up to? Well since my last post, I'm now married (last name now Majewski not Twarowski, so you may still see both last names), we have three fur babies, had a move, and went on our honeymoon to Maldives! Super busy! Best of all, I've been tutoring students full time now! I no longer work full time as a Restorative Hygienist, but now I am a temp Dental Hygienist and Restorative Hygienist where needed. The change? Oh I love it! I love being able to focus on my tutoring and working from home. Being a temp means I can basically work when and how I want. If I need a week or two off, I can take that off anytime without feeling the 'heat' from my boss. If I wanted to pick up extra hours, I can also do that anytime! Watch the video below that I have on advice for new temps. I WISH I had this advice when I started. A few things to make your job sooooo much easier. Otherwise, you will be super stressed trust me... Andrea Majewski - Dentalelle
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 I still have dreams (or nightmares??) being in school. I’m in clinic, my patient doesn’t show, I miss a big exam, my program director is telling me Im failing, ahhh all kinds of things. School was tough, I cried often, and Im so glad I’m done!
I’ve been tutoring for almost 13 years now and I really try to support my students. I support them while they are in school and I help them as much as I can. After school you need to start studying for the board exam and thats stress in itself! Everyone knows you have three tries to take the exam and if you don’t pass, you fail. Done. That hard work you went through in school is basically for nothing. This is why I became a tutor, so I can help students as much as possible to pass that exam! I want you all to succeed and I want you to do it with as less stress as possible. This brings me to my next point - with all that school stress, barely keeping up, making sure to sleep at night, eating when you can, and….working. Did you have to work while in school? Or, are you still working? I had to work every night while in school and it felt like torture. I was tired, I had to study, I was exhausted from thinking about studying, and I had a full day of school again the next day. What if you didnt have to work? And, what if you could still make money? As I get older, I can appreciate time and how fast it goes. When I was 19 I loved working. I loved working full time, and on a Saturday. I loved making my money and spending it! Fast forward, I’m 31 and I value my time relaxing at home. I value the vacations I take with my fiancee and I value hugging my fur babies. Its the simple things I love the most. I love dental, I still work in an office a few times a week to maintain my license and keep my skills up. My primary job? Tutoring from home and selling with Younique. I sponsor ladies who want to make an income selling from home and using social media. I am so passionate about the company because it gives back to women who have been sexually abused, proceeds go to fighting abused women, I sell ‘makeup’ that is all natural and helps women feel confident! I truly love it and most of all, I’m teaching other ladies to do the same. You CAN make an income working from home but you need the motivation and you need the support and training from someone already doing it. And heck, I need the help! Haha. I am busy with my tutoring and sponsoring that I don’t have time to devote to social media posts and selling makeup. I sponsor ladies to sell makeup so THEY get paid and I help YOU earn an amazing commission. You’re making money and having fun! I wish I had Younique when I was in school! I could have come home from a long day in clinic, post a few before and after makeup photos on facebook, plan an online makeup party to teach others about Younique, and the sales come in! It does require some work though but I teach you all of that. Trust me, if I can do it, YOU CAN! I’ve taught so many others to make some solid income. A student of mine, she's been with Younique for two weeks and already has made $309 in commissions. It IS possible! Why not try it? If it doesn't work out, you have some great makeup out of it and can easily walk away from this job. But, I'm here to help you so you won't want to walk away :) You could make $200 a month for some spending money, $3000 a month for some solid income and even $5000+ a month if you work it and really devote yourselves to it. It IS possible and now is the time to get in, the company is only a few years old and not saturated with reps yet. A lot of dental professionals have a side business selling electric toothbrushes and they can make a great income doing it. Why not sell makeup and skincare? All natural makeup and skincare of all things! We are health care professionals so we care about our health and the natural stuff right? Selling makeup is a lot easier because 99.9% of women wear makeup :). We all want the good quality stuff and buying from YOU (if you sell it) means they are helping you earn some extra cash and not helping Walmart give their CEO a 9th vacation home. Who would you rather help and buy your makeup from? Come on students I need you, AND I want to help you! I’m in the business of tutoring, helping students be less stressed and pass their exam. Now I am also in the business of sponsoring you earn an amazing side income. I only WISH I had this when I was in college. Talk to me :). You can learn more at my own personal site here: www.lovelylashboss.com . I talk about the training, the opportunity, and the fun you can have joining my team! Andrea  Students all have the same worry - they spend a fortune on school, and still have to PASS. After they pass their program, their next worry is whether they can PASS the big board exam and start their dream career. Tutoring helps with all of those worries! Having a private tutor will help you pass all courses in school and prepare/pass the board exam. What about at only $14 for the year? When I was in school I wanted a tutor in the worst way! I wanted someone to show me how to study, what to study and to basically make things easier for me. I didn't have the time to spend hours reading notes and making my own notes after classes. I would have rathered spend a few hours with a tutor on weekends to show me the way! But..I couldn't afford one. I was working evenings and weekends to pay the bills and to spend $60 an hour on a tutor I couldn't do it. There was one company who offered a tutoring prep course a few evenings a week BUT the sessions were only recorded and saved for one week. That drove me crazy! I didn't want to feel rushed during my studying. At a $400 price tag for an 8 week tutoring course I thought heck no. Fast forward, and how I own Dentalelle Tutoring :). I pride myself in making tutoring affordable for everyone because I feel every single student can benefit from it. I provide my students with unlimited support, they can reach out to me and ask questions 24/7, bimonthly group tutoring sessions on the topics they decide, mock exams to test their knowledge before taking all tests or exams in their program, and of course board exam preparation when that time comes! The best part is Dentalelle has something for everyone and every price point! It depends what you need as a student. You can become a member of Dentalelle for a full four years acces to tutoring, sessions, recordings, and mock exams. You can learn more about that here, it's the best value from $374 for the entire four years! Not ready to commit just yet? Why not spend $14 and get our most popular mock exam package FREE with ALL session recordings from 2016! You get access to all recorded sessions (32+ videos) all year, meaning you can watch them as often as you like. The best $14 you will ever spend here. I offer this for students who aren't sure and a little worried about spending their money. For only $14 you can see how amazing Dentalelle Tutoring can be for you :). You have enough stress being a student, let me take the rest away from you. Have you seen my FREE videos on YouTube yet? You will find a variety of topics here.   I'm a dental lover all the way! I've been a dental professional for 13 years now, tutored dental hygiene and assisting students for 13 years and I'm a lover of all things dental related! It only made sense I came up with an amazing gift guide for the dental lover you know and love! Check out these products below, all included with links for fast ordering. Happy shopping everyone!    I tutor students and we always spend time prior to our sessions venting and discussing still-in-school-struggles. Rude instructors, rude students, 8 tests and projects to work on in one week, failing grades, the threat of being kicked out...ah! We’ve all heard the stories from nurses and medical students, having to work like crazy and prove themselves on zero sleep. Everyone wants to be the best of the best and are willing to do anything to showcase their skills and talents. Classes, homework, tests to study for, projects to work on, patients to prepare for, clinical exams to pass, instruments to sterilize, and oh yes, eating and sleeping somewhere in there. Well, for dental hygiene students it's almost the same... This is usually all in the first year! Maybe even the first semester depending on how your program is. There is no such thing as “It’s only the first week of school, not a lot of work to do”. The first week of school for dental hygiene students mean to take the time to prepare and study for those 5 tests you have next week. If you slack off, well you just might fail. Failing a class after your first two tests? You may have one more chance if you’re lucky, to go forward to the committee to plead your case. Your personal life? Your parents are going through a divorce, you’re getting into the study routine, zero sleep because you have to work every night after school to AFFORD the program, and oops you managed a 69% but need a 70% to pass. If they don’t agree with why you failed, out you go! Half your money that you’ve already paid for the program isn’t refunded and you are out of there. They could care less about personal struggles. Is that stress? Heck yes! But, all of that doesn’t matter because as a dental hygiene student you need to do it all with a smile on your face. If you don’t, you appear weak and it will only bring you down further. The instructors may not “appreciate your attitude” and IF you ever need to plead your case (because you’re failing a class) your ‘attitude’ will be the final decision and because you show lack of enthusiasm you are OUT. I tutor dental hygiene and dental assisting students online not only because I love to teach, but I do it because I want to provide support. I want to be there when students come to me crying from the stress and need help to pass a class. I have been there and done all of that. I have been through some crazy stress when I went to school. Crying everyday wasn't foreign to me. The FIRST time I went to dental hygiene school (yes, I took the program TWICE), read my article here, my parents were going through a divorce around the same time clinic was starting. I was having a hard time to begin with, debridement DID NOT come naturally to me and I had a difficult time removing calculus interproximal. I had to sign up for extra help (didn’t come cheap) because if I didn't I would have failed. Yes, I am an adult, but divorce is hard for anyone. I had that at the back of my mind, having to stay at school until 6pm everyday for my extra help in instrumentation, and all the while needing to study to maintain our 70% average. A friend of mine - her grandma had passed away, who was like a mother to her. That didn’t matter’ to our school educators because it was the time of the clinical exams and she was already barely passing. She wasn’t allowed to take additional time off because if she did, she would fail. She needed all the help she could get. Imagine, having to do a good job while your grandma just passed away. ALSO, knowing the instructors didn’t care doesn’t make it any easier. Oh wait I forgot, she was allowed to take time off to grieve but she would miss her clinicals and would need to take THE SEMESTER OVER…for an additional cost of course. Fair? I think not. I could go on but I don’t want to depress you readers too much :). So, do you think you’re alone in feeling this way while going through school? You are NOT ALONE. Does everyone appear to be smiling, happy, and always in a good mood in your class? Trust me, they are barely scrapping by. What helps? You need a great support system. Get together with some classmates for study groups and have ‘venting’ sessions to discuss your troubles in school. Also, I hate to stay it but you DO need to adjust your attitude. Try to see the positivity in anything. When I was in school, thats what I did. I constantly thought - “This is NOT forever, I made it in here and I will make it out.” Develop study plans and routines. Kick studying in the butt! Show your instructors you can and WILL push through no matter what. School is your time to learn and get all you can out of your instructors. Study before classes, ask questions during class time and really show your dedication. You will be SO proud of yourself in the end!! I took the dental hygiene program twice (haven’t read that article yet, I explain what happened here), and I sure as heck wouldn’t want to take it again. I always feel a sense to nurture when a new student signs up with my program at Dentalelle. I literally want to reach out of my computer screen to hug them and let them know I am here for them. Are you still in school? Check out the Dentalelle Student Program here, I offer support, mock exams, teaching videos, previously recording sessions, online tutoring, and LITERALLY any help you need while in your program. You can also email me anytime if you need my help. You sign up and get full access until you graduate, easy and less stressful. Need a few laughs - check out Dentalelle’s YouTube video’s here, Sorry if this article depressed you but always remember you can and will do this! Read these last few paragraphs and get motivated for tomorrow’s class. Show those instructors you got this!!   If you haven't started your portfolio yet, you aren't the only one! I was audited several years ago and had the best of intentions. I planned to start my portfolio in January and work at it a few hours every month. Fast forward, and what did I actually do? I started my portfolio in November and worked like a crazy person to get it done before Christmas. I couldn't get it done before Christmas and worked on it until about December 29th...AND SEND. Why couldn't I get it done before Christmas? Well, because I love Christmas! I didn't want to miss out on the christmas shopping, christmas decorating, christmas baking and family gatherings! Who wants to be stuck at home, papers everywhere, working on their portfolio? Not me! So, it's November now and I want to show you how you can get your portfolio done in ONE MONTH. Yes, even if you haven't started. It's entirely possible with the new SMILE portal system. We had to write the typical day out by hand when I was audited, now you don't have to. This will literally save you about 5 hours. I do offer a Portfolio Workshop which is a full course valid for one year. I upload two new webinars each month to add to your continuing education, provide goal examples and learning activity examples each month, guide you on chapters to read in your textbook, and offer teaching videos! Also included is access into a private facebook group to network with others AND a free portfolio review by me at the end. In the meantime, get started with these ideas to get that portfolio of yours done in one month: 1. Want free continuing education? Go to www.vivalearning.com and browse the webinars they offer. All free and you can watch them anytime. You can take a test afterwards as proof that you watched the webinar. You can take as many as you want for your hours. 2. Open a textbook Open any textbook you have and read a chapter! Make detailed notes on that chapter and furthermore browse online for that topic and research some more. Reading and browsing online will be at least two hours of continuing education. Free again! 3. Set aside time The key to getting all this done in a month is to set aside time. Whether it be 5 hours every Saturday for a month, or one hour everyday until it's done, set aside time that works for you. Those three things are easy to get started right now! If you need some help you can reach out to me or check out Dentalelle's Portfolio Workshop where I guide you every step of the way!   This is my first official week (well short week because of Thanksgiving) that I've left my dental office in London where I worked for almost 13 years. I was able to do this and teach full time from home. It was a hard decision to leave my office of 13 years but it was mainly hard because more recently I become a Restorative Dental Hygienist. I spent $10,000 to learn this skill at school and now walking away from it? Well, yes. My time is NOW to see how far this teaching can take me and what's to say I can't do both? :). First things first.... This week my days have consisted of waking up at 7am to let the doggies out to pee and feed them. I relax on the couch infront of the fire with a healthy smoothie, and afterwards a tea, I watch a show or movie on Netflix while the puppies nap (yup, they seriously nap after walking up). By 9am I start teaching my dental hygiene/dental assisting students whatever the topic is for that day. I do this, with little breaks until 2pm. Afternoon consists of taking the dogs for a walk, probably having another snack (I'm always hungry), tidying up the house and maybe recording a video or two for my YouTube channel. Sometimes I work until 2pm, sometimes 4pm, or sometimes 5pm when Tom gets home. I enjoy cooking (sometimes haha) and usually start prepping or dinner around 5pm. That's it :). I'm home, not crazy travel time, no gas being spent, and I can basically change my hours if needed. Our lives are way too busy to be chained to a 9-5 job, which usually means waking up at 6am to get ready and leave, travel time, being exhausted by 3pm, leaving from work at 5:30, coming home even more exhausted, having to make dinner, talk to your significant other about your exhausting day, and sleep. I prefer working from home :). 
These days its hard to find 'older' and more 'experienced' dental hygienists who are passionate about this profession. I remember in school, even my instructors didn't seem to have a passion for it. Some did, but usually every chance they got they would add comments like "be careful who you work for," "make sure to start in a great office," "don't expect to get paid a lot right away," things like that. Not very encouraging! Right?! Younger dental hygienists, and newer dental hygienists I find are extremely passionate! They are excited and ready to work. They are nice to their patients and ready to take on anything. I think those who have been working for 10+ years are burnt out and discouraged by the profession. The solid truths are we aren't being paid as much, we seem to have more responsibilities and less time per patient to do them, and our yearly association fees have gone up. I could go on here, but you get the idea. However, I will be the first one to tell you that I love this job! I have been working for 12+ years now and I consider it my mission to inspire and motivate my students to love this profession too. Don't let anyone tell you how you should feel and how you should work. Be excited! This profession is wonderful and especially when you are first getting started there is so much to learn. I will also tell you that working in one office over another will make all the difference! Unfortunately when you first start out you have bills to pay and will work anywhere, this is OK! Once you pay off those student loans though, if you quickly realize that office isn't for you make sure to move on. Perhaps you feel the staff never truly 'accepted' you, or you have 30 minutes per patient and you feel like you're working in a factory assembly line, maybe you don't get paid for no shows or cancellations, does your boss give you a major guilt trip when you take a vacation, or maybe you haven't had a raise in 5 years? I hear these stories all too often... On another note, my famous line to anyone who knows me is - "If you aren't happy, change it, only you can." This rings true for your job. You work 40 hours a week, you need to love it! If the dental office is stressing you out and you're working your butt off, change it! I'm not suggesting changing professions but you should try another office first. I can count on two hands hygienists I know personally who weren't happy in their jobs, changed offices and are thanking their lucky stars! They love it there and they have a newfound love for their career. I tutor dental hygiene and dental assisting students for the board exam. More than that though, is I help them when they first graduate, pass the exam, and start working in an office. I guide them through what could be scary time for them. I am passionate in this profession and I want others to be just as excited and passionate as I am! Patients need 'happy' hygienists! You need to love your job for your patients if nothing else. I recommend this Full Dental Hygiene Resource Manual, you can print it out and keep it with you! It goes through everything you need to know when you start working in an office. Remember, don't listen to what others may tell you - if they are unhappy in this profession it doesn't mean you have to be or will be! Dental hygiene is an amazing extension into the health care field - you will help people, make them less nervous and make someones day :). It's incredibly rewarding!   This FULL Dental Hygiene Manual includes 104 pages of periodontal cases, special needs conditions, AB's explained, common medications, eruption charts, wheelchair transfer information, oral pathology lesions, radiography, and more! Click here to learn more.
Feel free to comment on YouTube after watching if you like. Already getting a few comments on this video. Click above to view, or view here. --I'm so glad to see other students talking because trust me when I say YOU ARE NOT ALONE! School is tough, seems impossible, and stressful. That's all an understatement but it will be worth it. --It's actually really inspired me to start something new...perhaps a YouTube channel specifically for helping students get through school and push through the stress. Would anyone watch it? :)? Lets all get together, share your stories, your struggles and help each other out while in school. You CANT become a dental hygienist or assistant without getting through school right?! Whats stressing you out? Clinical? Exams every week? Other students? Other TEACHERS?....it's a safe place here. Let's chat! Hit reply and email me! Would you be interested in watching more videos? I will talk, and be open and honest. Have questions about an upcoming test? Teacher problems? Student problems? Sleep deprived? Need help? Need advice? I would love to invite you all over here and have a major chat session about dental hygiene school life. Let's unwind and chat, get all the stress off your chest! SEE that you're NOT ALONE! But...I live in Woodstock ON and I have a feeling not all of you would come down here, so lets do a YouTube channel instead? What do you think? I wish I had someone to talk to when I was in school - I've said it before but I had the worst time. Not only having to take the program TWICE but I constantly felt I wasn't good enough. I failed a lot of clinic tests because I swear my one instructor hated me...I remember failing a final clinic exam because my arm was "too high". No joke, this is what she said. It was a test on scaling and I failed because the instructor felt my arm was too high and it would hurt me in the long run. I remember going to the clinical director and appealing the case, even she said "Andrea, I don't know why you're here this is just embarrassing. I'm signing you off as a pass...but keep that arm lower". Can you IMAGINE? I remember for the appeal I had to come in on a Saturday, I had to book it off work (so I was losing money), travel an hour by bus to school..actually a bus and subway in total for her to pass me after a 5 minute conversation. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to have that pass but I also knew she would pass me. I felt all along that other instructor failed me for a stupid reason. Did she have something to prove? I really think so. Oops...did I say that?...sorry but it's true. I've always had a problem with authority though, especially when I know I'm right :):):). I wouldn't shy away from giving an instructor the evil eye when I wasnt being treated fairly. You should have seen me in school two years ago for Restorative Hygiene..same situations. I guess being 30 years old didnt change me haha. I am convinced one instructor in particular 'hated' me too that I even spoke to the Dean with how I was being treated unfairly. Seriously got me no where but I needed to speak my case. When all my classmates could see it and felt sorry for me I knew I had to do something. Another story for another email? You bet...:). I have tons of them! I'm a tutor now so haha to them! I wasn't alone, I know other students were feeling that way too. How is your program/teachers/tests going for you??? I'm always here to listen!    *Original post from August 2014 Welcome to Dentalelle's Blog! Surprisingly this is my first blog post with Dentalelle even though we have been online for the past 5 years. Why do you ask? Truthfully I simply did not have the time and for students who know me, I do it all and I do it all myself :). NOW however, I do have time, or in other words I am making time! Let me start off by introducing myself and why I started Dentalelle Tutoring in the first place... My story is quite an interesting one so read on! Basically when I started college for my dental assisting course, about 10 years ago, I realized after that first week how much I love anything dental and learning about oral health. I will always remember the instructor putting a stack of papers on my desk the first day, I took one and passed the remainder of this large stack to the student beside me. My instructor quickly replied "Oh no dear, this stack is for YOU..for the month". A month??!! Ok, wait a minute..what kind of program is this??!! But, who are we kidding, I loved the fact that I would be learning a stack of information in a month and of course needed to memorize it for WEEKLY tests (yes you read right, we had WEEKLY tests). 11 months later I had graduated from dental assisting college and began working at an amazing office which employees currently 6 dentists. More about this office later, oh yes..I will be going into detail about what working has been like first as a dental receptionist, dental assistant, and now a dental hygienist. I need to save some information for my upcoming blog posts! It will be an exciting read for you all every week. When I went to dental hygiene college, this is where I quickly realized how much I loved teaching other students and even being there for them to display a positive attitude when things got rough. Let me say dental hygiene school IS stressful, and if you want to go home and cry everyday this IS normal! Oh how I would have loved to have someone to listen to my venting (we all know our families, spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, friends DO NOT understand). To make my long story short (too late? :), this is why Dentalelle is here! I will listen to you vent and help you remain positive during this tough time. Seriously - email me when you feel like giving up or when you have been studying for 4 hours straight and think you can't do it anymore. I am here to help :). I first started Dentalelle Tutoring because I wanted to help students, plain and simple. In my school - additional tutoring was $60 an hour and as a student working only weekends that is certainly something I couldn't afford. In fact, I didn't know any students who could unless mommy or daddy happened to be paying their full tuition and living expenses (gosh how that would have made things so much easier for me!). For any student out there currently in dental hygiene school you know one hour of tutoring isn't enough, more like 4 hours AT LEAST are needed to really understand something. So basically you are paying $60x4=$240 for tutoring...umm no way! Needless to say in school I did not receive tutoring instruction if I needed it and neither of my friends did either. We kept saying "why isn't there anyone out there who can tutor us on weekends for a reasonable price and better yet online so we can sleep in for a change!" This is how Dentalelle was born! I literally started designing the web site, developing course content and tutoring students a few months after I had graduated. This took TIME! Think of it this way, each 2 hour tutoring session or course took me at least 4 hours of prep (and still does, I am a perfectionist!) The program and material was still fresh in my mind and I really wanted to help make things easier and less stressful for students. We all know, if our marks are good (or GREAT) we are less stressed and can actually sleep at night right?! So here we are - I tutor for individual class courses (pharmacology, oral pathology, radiography, etc.,), board exam preparation full courses (see the popular Board Exam Prep Academy here, which includes full tutoring and prep for the board exam until you graduate AND pass the exam), and continuing education courses for dental hygienists. We offer a discount for students who sign up together also. Email me if you have any questions anytime or you need to vent. I really am here to help and make your life as a dental hygiene student less stressful! Also, did you know....? I took dental hygiene school TWICE, yes TWICE! Imagine the stress of that?! A common saying I had for students when I went to school was "Hey, at least you are only taking this horrible, stressful program ONCE, remember now I took it twice!" :).  |
AuthorMy name is Andrea Twarowski, owner and operator of Dentalelle Tutoring. 
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