About Me

Hi everyone! Xin chào các bạn! My name is Helen & I am from Seattle, WA. I am a Registered Dental Hygienist & Licensed Beauty Esthetician. I currently work full-time as a Dental Hygienist & part-time as an Esthetician (just for fun). I love going on road trips & traveling in my spare time. My family and I have traveled to almost every state in the U.S. going on road trips, sight-seeing, & exploring national parks along the way. In 2012 my family & I took a spontaneous road trip from Seattle to New York in our van. The following year we bought an RV and did another road trip from Seattle to Florida. My favorite hobbies are: arts & crafts, baking/decorating, anything hands on related, DIY projects, extreme couponing, playing video games, tennis/pickleball, swimming, and snowboarding!

I attended undergrad at the University Of Washington and graduated with my bachelors degree in 2014. I became intrigued and fascinated in pursing a career in dentistry pretty early on ever since high school.  I have always wanted to work in the healthcare field to help others & specifically work in a career that I can utilize hands on skills. It wasn't until one summer of my undergraduate studies that I decided to look further into the career. I enrolled in an accelerated 11 week dental assisting course (courses are usually 7-10 months long) that was one day a week and spent my summer getting trained on becoming a dental assistant. I completed the dental assisting course and was determined to find an office that I could work in. It was quite a challenge for me to find a job with having such minimal dental assisting skills. After sending out countless emails, I was fortunate enough to get hired by a fast paced dental clinic that was willing to train me on all of the procedures performed in the office. The office offered general dental and orthodontic services and I obtained so much knowledge in the span of three months working at the office. The majority of patients seen there were Vietnamese speaking & luckily I knew how to speak Vietnamese & translate with patients! I am thankful to have grown up learning how to speak fluently in two different languages!

After graduating from UW, I continued working as a dental assistant, I wanted to further my studies in dentistry so I applied to the dental hygiene program at Seattle Central College. I was mainly working as an orthodontic and lead dental assistant but also did a lot of hygiene assisting with the dental hygienist. I spent a year taking prerequisite courses and applied to dental hygiene school the following year in 2016. During dental hygiene school I really wanted to document my journey throughout the program for memories so I started creating YouTube videos, mainly weekly vlogs.

This is my very first video that I created in dental hygiene school: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqajgxEhg50&t=59s

During the 2.5 years of dental hygiene school, I became a class officer and took on the role of class president for my dental hygiene class. I really enjoyed doing all of the decorations, planning, fundraising, hosting meetings, and organizing for events such as symposium and our pinning ceremony. I was given the opportunity to give the welcoming intro for the pinning ceremony which was an overall rewarding experience. In 2018, I achieved a huge milestone and completed the dental hygiene program at Seattle Central College. I graduated with my second bachelors degree in dental hygiene, and became a licensed registered dental hygienist.

Check out our Pinning Ceremony at Seattle Central College:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9karS7oiAw&t=17s

After graduation, I decided to work as a temp hygienist to see what it is like working for different dental offices. I wanted to experience a flexible work schedule, meet new people, work in a new environment, and see how other offices operate their daily schedule. I gained a lot of experience working as a temp hygienist (both good and bad) and decided to find a permanent office to work at after temping for seven months.

Check out my tips on temping as a dental hygienist here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buAiz02XEKk&t=49s

After working as a dental hygienist for about a year, I wanted to explore a new hobby that I could still do hands on. I had a friend who introduced me to eyelash extensions during dental hygiene school and have always wanted to learn all about the beauty world! The jobs were similar in the aspect of hands on work, working with people and also paying attention to meticulous details. I wanted to have a "work at home" job while still being able to utilize hands on skills & becoming an esthetician seemed like the perfect second job. I set up a lash studio in my home, I would work 6-7 days/week as a dental hygienist during the day and do eyelash extensions in the evening after work.

In 2019, due to covid I became furloughed for three months from my dental hygiene job. I enjoy crafting customized gifts for family and friends but found it extremely difficult to purchase dental related gifts that were unique. I decided to start a small business from my home studio sewing, packaging, & selling handmade accessories that were dental related. I wanted to find a way to share all of my creative crafts & projects with everyone. I shifted my interests and tried learning a new skill with designing on a software that was quite difficult to use. I wanted to somehow incorporate my love and passion for dentistry and that's when the ideas for endless gifts came to mind from enamel pins, stickers to handmade scrunchies, scrub caps, glassware, and more! 

In 2021, I have been given the opportunity to attend a couple of events in Seattle to display Dentaldiyshop. The events that I have been to is Symposium (dental hygiene conference) and PNDC (dental conference).

*What are the goals for dentaldiyshop?

I would love to add more products for everyone to enjoy, design more enamel pins, custom glassware, and include more handmade accessories. I would also love to attend more dental conferences to meet all of you & share my shop.

*Thanks for getting to know me! Feel free to leave a comment below & say hi! I hope you enjoy my products as much as I have enjoyed creating them.

Get to know me: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caSAR1b2R0M

"You only fail when you stop trying"

🦷  💜   Helen, RDH