Latest Reflections

In the Shadow of His Mother

In the Shadow of His Mother

Let’s go back to the clinic, back to the Accutane study, back to that sixteen-year-old standing in his mother’s shadow. Let’s call him Keith. (I do not remember his real name.) At Keith's first...

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“The Worst I’ve Ever Seen”

“The Worst I’ve Ever Seen”

To tell this story, I’m making up some names, using ‘Brenda’ for my boss’s pretend name, and ‘Doug Russo’ for the pretend name of a patient. It was a Tuesday morning, and while the Transplant Clinic...

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Tran1 or Tran2?

Tran1 or Tran2?

The interesting thing about working at a university in a staff role is that those roles, especially the ones lower on the totem pole, tend to be populated with people who are working the job as a...

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A Better Future

A Better Future

I did things at Hennepin County Medical Center that most hygienists never do: I cleaned someone’s teeth in the O.R. I asked a teenage sex worker about her practices, to inform my opinion of the...

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Mothering

Mothering

After the dentist fired me from ‘the good dental practice,’ I quit the pedo mill. It was ruining me as a hygienist. My next two part-time jobs were in a Minneapolis community clinic that catered to...

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Doing the Dental Right Thing

Doing the Dental Right Thing

My first career was as a dental hygienist, and the first job I got after graduating was in a ‘pedo mill,’ meaning a pediatric dental office where the hygienists saw a ridiculous number of patients...

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Got enough love?

When my husband died and other changes followed, The Love Bucket helped me figure out how to bring more love into my life. If you’d like an objective method to increase the level of love in your life, this guide is for you!

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Jule Kucera