Understanding how pH affects saliva, which in turn effects the oral environment is the first step in disease prevention.
Click here for PowerPoint
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Sonicare names Toni 2009 Mentor of the year!
Toni S. Adams, RDH, MA, graduated from Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California with an AS in Dental Hygiene in 1973, practiced for 26 years before being forced to retire due to repetitive stress injuries. Her clinical practice experience included work in a variety of settings, including a single dentist general practice, periodontal office, non-profit clinic, and large group practice.
Toni chose to go back to school for her “retraining,” earning a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies with a minor in Health Professions. But that wasn’t enough. She had been bitten by the learning bug she moved to the Sacramento area, graduating in 2008 with an MA in Communication Studies with emphases in Health, Instructional, and Intercultural Communication. She wrote a communication handbook for dental hygienists for her master’s project and is now in search of a publisher.
Toni has won awards for writing, speaking, scholarship, and leadership. These include winning the Academy of Comprehensive Esthetics Dental Hygiene Star Search Speaking competition in 2005 and being named the Sonicare RDH 2009 Mentor of the Year. She enjoys writing for and speaking to dental groups about communication issues, including intercultural communication, nonverbal communication, dental health literacy, and many other related topics. Her articles have appeared in RDH Magazine, the CDHA Journal, and the Sunstar-Butler GUMline Newsletter. Additionally, she has taught public speaking, has presented scholarly papers at communication conventions, and has completed original research into the role of culture and diversity in dental hygiene practice. She has been a career-long member of ADHA and currently serves as VP of the Sacramento Valley component and on the editorial board of the CDHA Journal.
Toni is a wife of almost 40 years, mother of two adult sons, and grandmother of a brilliant and beautiful four-year-old granddaughter (in her absolutely objective opinion).
She welcomes questions and comments at tonisadamsrdh@earthlink.net or at toniadams.com
You can view Toni's award on You tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4F1qytBeEg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.pennwelldentalgroup.com%2Fvideo%2F2009-philips-sonicarerdh&feature=player_embedded
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American Dental Association Applauds Legislators for Introducing “Meth Mouth” Bill
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2009—Dr. John S. Findley, president of the American Dental Association (ADA), applauded Capitol Hill legislators today for introducing a federal bill aimed at understanding and treating “meth mouth”—a condition where teeth can become blackened, stained, rotting and crumbling from methamphetamine use. To read the full press release, please visit ADA.org at this link: Click here
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The SCHIP bill became law on Feb. 4. It adds 11 million children to the program. SCHIP was established in 1997 to provide coverage for health care services to children and pregnant women from families that are not Medicaid-eligible but are unable to afford private insurance.
A motivation for starting the program was that people completely dependent on government programs had no incentive to work toward independence if getting a job meant losing health care for themselves or their children. SCHIP allowed children in families with incomes up to 200 percent (about $46,000/yr income) of the federal poverty level to enroll children, expecting co-pays from parents in the upper ranges.
Currently, most states offer a dental benefit as part of their state CHIP program, but the benefit is optional and subject to being eliminated when state budgets become constrained. A “dental wrap” benefit will enable children of families that meet income and other eligibility requirements for SCHIP and receive medical benefits through an employer-sponsored medical insurance plan, to access just dental coverage through SCHIP.
President Barack Obama signed a bill that reauthorized and expand SCHIP to an additional 4 million children. “In a decent society, there are certain obligations that are not subject to tradeoffs or negotiation, and health care for our children is one of those obligations,” he said. Notably, the measure passed both chambers with bipartisan support.
Bad news for smokers. The expansion is to be funded by a 62-cents-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax.
As things stand, parents will seek and get health care for their children when it’s needed. If they are uninsured, clinics and hospitals write the expense off as uncompensated care and then increase charges for patients who pay. In some way these expenses can and must be paid. SCHIP is not a bad program, especially in these economic times.
ADHA President Diann Bomkamp, RDH, BSDH, remarked, “The collective effort within the dental community to advocate for the inclusion of dental benefits in SCHIP demonstrates the strength of collaboration and the positive impact it can have on the patients we serve. Those efforts resulted in dental coverage for millions of low-income children who desperately need access to preventive and other oral health care services.”
For additional information on SCHIP: Click Here
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Consumers Want to Buy Products That Dental Hygienists Recommend
www.Gumbrand.com offers robust suite of dental products for consumers.
Sunstar Americas, Inc., an international leader in mouth and body care products, has commissioned a survey by Mintel International Group Limited to demonstrate consumers' desires to purchase products recommended by their dental hygienists.
The 1,957 people who participated in the online survey distributed in March of 2007 were asked about their relationship with their dental hygienist; the majority said they trust their dental professionals completely. What's more, 81 percent said they trust the product recommendations of their dental hygienist.
The study also found that women are more likely to visit their dental hygienist than men (47 percent to 39 percent), and that 69 percent of those women are more likely to shop for oral care products for themselves and the entire household.
"We know how hard dental hygienists work to educate their patients on the appropriate products to use, and this confirms patients are listening," said Ann Foppe, Professional Marketing Director of Sunstar Americas, Inc."Gumbrand.com has our entire suite of products online and is perfect for patients who are having a hard time finding the product recommended by their dental hygienist. It's a quick and easy shopping experience, with everything in one location."
The upgraded Web site is not only easy to navigate, it has product and oral health information for consumers as well as dental professionals. There are downloadable product pages which dental hygienists can use to check off recommendations and give to their patients as a reminder on which products to buy. A small tip card directing patients to the Web site is also available to download.
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URGENT - Proposed Changes to the CODA Accreditation Standards for Dental Hygiene Education Programs
As a result of the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) meeting on July 31, 2008, there are proposed revisions to Standard 2-17
of the Accreditation Standards for Dental Hygiene Education Programs. Standard 2-17 refers to the dental hygiene process of care; of particular interest are the proposed changes to dental hygiene diagnosis and treatment planning.
Click here for a template letter that the ADHA requested we submit to the Commission on Dental Accreditation. It is important that the ADHA, dental hygiene educators, and dental hygiene practitioners to provide written and verbal testimony to CODA.
Upon reading this letter, you will note that the terminology "dental hygiene diagnosis" has been eliminated; however, the description and definition within the Standard has been strengthened. Another proposed change is relevant to treatment planning. This pertains to part "e" of the Standard changing the word "plan" to needs".
You can read the full Standard of Care and Addendum at the adha.org website. We need our voices to be heard.
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American Heart Association New Guidelines for Pre-Medication 2007
Patients at the greatest danger of bad outcomes from infective endocarditis
and for whom preventive antibiotics are worth the risk include those with:
€ Artificial heart valves
€ A history of having had infective endocarditis
€ Certain specific, congenital heart conditions including:
- Unrepaired or incompletely repaired cyanotic congenital heart disease,
including those with palliative shunts and conduits
- A completely repaired congenital heart defect with prosthetic material or
device, whether placed by surgery or by catheter interventions, during the
first six months after the procedure
- Any repaired congenital heart defect with residual defect at the site or
adjacent to the site of a prosthetic patch or prosthetic device
Antibiotic premedication is no longer indicated for dental patients with
mitral valve prolapse, rheumatic heart disease, bicuspid valve disease,
calcified aortic stenosis, congenital heart conditions, such as ventricular
septal defects, atrial septal defects, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
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JoAnn Galliano, RDH, MEd (left) and Mary Turner, RDH, MS (right)
Mary Turner, RDH, MS received the Johnson & Johnson/ADHA Excellence in Dental Hygiene Award. This award is the highest honor bestowed in dental hygiene. Her accomplishments and passion as an educator are unique as leader and mentor.
Mary is now Dean of Science & Allied Health of Sacramento City College (SCC). Her ability to stand out has been evident for a long time. As a researcher, she focused her Master’s research project on the effects of stannous fluoride on subgingival flora and presented this at the ADHA Research Conference in 1984.
Some of Mary’s biggest contributions are as a consumer advocate and agent of change. These contributions include working to safeguard dental hygiene scope of practice and supervision legislation in statute; establishing the newest category of California dental hygiene licensure, the Registered Dental Hygienist in Alternative Practice (RDHAP); assisting in the development of a distance learning based RDHAP program to make the RDHAP a reality; and while CDHA President, nearly realizing an independent dental hygiene board. We are still in pursuit of our own Board.
Mary LIVES the professional roles of dental hygiene and we are fortunate to have her as a member of our profession and our component.
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Heidi Emmerling Assumes Full Time Instructor Position at SCC
Heidi Emmerling comes to SCC with 18 years of private practice experience. A 1986 graduate of SCC, she is thrilled to be teaching at her alma mater. Her teaching experience includes working as a part time instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. Most recently she was a full time instructor in the Writing Program at UC Santa Barbara.
Heidi obtained her Bachelor’s Degree through a distance degree completion program at the University of Saint Francis. She continued her academic career and received her Masters and PhD from the University of Nevada in Reno.
Heidi is best known by some people through her active participation in the dental hygiene profession and her writing career. She has served as the President for the Nevada State Dental Hygienists Association as well as National Delegate to ADHA. Her column in RDH magazine ran for several years. She was a co-author of The Radical Hygienist website. Her various publications and more can be found on her website www.writingcures.com. SCC is lucky to have Heidi as a new staff member.
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The Value of Education in
Tobacco Cessation in California
$1.8 Billion in Tobacco Control Saves Calif. $86 Billion, Study Says
September 2, 2008
California spent $1.8 billion on statewide tobacco-control during the
program's first 15 years but saved $86 billion in personal healthcare costs
during the same timespan, according to a study from the University of
California at San Francisco.
Consumer Affairs reported Aug. 29 that the study on the cost benefits of the
California Tobacco Control Program estimated that the program prevented the
consumption of 3.6 billion packs of cigarettes -- worth $9.2 billion -- in
its first decade and a half. The return on investment in the program was
50-to-1, researchers said. "The benefits of the program accrued very quickly and are very large," said
Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control
Research and Education. "When adults stop smoking, you see immediate
benefits in heart disease, with impacts on cancer and lung diseases
starting to appear a year or two later."
Unlike many other prevention programs, California' tobacco-control
initiative focused on changing social norm for adult smokers, not
adolescents. Massive cost savings were seen even though funding for the
program was trimmed in the mid-1990s. Researchers said that if funding had
been sustained throughout the study period the state would have saved $156
billion.
The research was published in the Aug. 25, 2008 issue of the journal PLoS
Medicine.
Click here for information on the "Fostering Smiles" public health project to be conducted during the House of Delegates 2009.
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ADA new advanced dental assistant
New workforce proposal: Oral Preventive Assistant curriculum planned
Oral Preventive Assistant curriculum planned Posted April 21, 2008
By Karen Fox
The Oral Preventive Assistant Curriculum Committee met for the first time April 3-4 at ADA Headquarters to begin the planning stages for the ADA's new workforce model designed to enhance the capabilities and versatility of the dental staff.
The ADA's vision for the Oral Preventive Assistant program proposes an additional capability set for the dental assistant that is focused on the basics of preventive care—including oral hygiene education, the application of fluorides, placement of sealants, and coronal polishing for all patients—along with the ability to perform scaling procedures for periodontal Type I (gingivitis) patients.
"This new member of the oral health team can supplement the services of the dentist and/or dental hygienist, allowing them to deliver more advanced preventive services in line with their level of training and expertise," said Adm. Carol Turner, a U.S. Navy dentist who chairs the OPA Curriculum Committee. "The Oral Preventive Assistant can then handle the less complex periodontal Type I cases."
Seeking meaningful solutions to dental workforce and oral health access issues, the 2006 House of Delegates passed several resolutions calling for two new dental team members, the Oral Preventive Assistant and the Community Dental Health Coordinator.
Since 2004 the House has directed three different workgroups to study dental workforce issues as part of a much broader Association effort to evaluate workforce and oral health access. One group studied the adequacy of the current workforce to meet the access needs of the underserved and make recommendations, and some of those studies resulted in the finding that dentists in underserved areas need help operating more efficiently due to a lack of additional staff.
The CDHC, which is set to begin pilot testing this fall, is a new allied dental person with community health worker skills who comes from the community he or she serves. Working under a dentist's supervision in community settings, the CDHC has the potential to enhance and complement the delivery of services by dentists, dental hygienists and community health workers.
The Oral Preventive Assistant will work primarily in private dental offices under dentist supervision and enable the dental team to provide care at the appropriate levels of training—potentially reducing the costs of treatment and increasing access to care.
"Our plan is to offer a curriculum to encompass the requirements and clinical competencies to be successful as an Oral Preventive Assistant and a valued member of the dental team," said Adm. Turner. "The curriculum will be available to states and include several options for implementation. It is the states' prerogative to determine if and how to implement the curriculum."
One aspect of the Oral Preventive Assistant workforce model development has changed since its inception. Initially, the Workforce Models National Coordinating and Development Committee envisioned the OPA as a new type of provider requiring 12 months of training. After further investigation comparing curriculums for the proposed OPA capabilities to those competencies required for Commission on Dental Accreditation-accredited dental assisting education programs, the committee believed the Oral Preventive Assistant program should be developed to build on existing CODA-accredited dental assisting programs.
This approach, said Adm. Turner, is consistent with how the services train dental assistants to be prophy technicians.
"For years, the Navy dental personnel were all active duty or reserve due to the deployment schedules that we had to support on ships or in the field with the Marines," said Adm. Turner. "We had our own dental assistants, and some were specialized prophy technicians.
"I have been in the Navy for over 30 years and the prophy technician is as valuable today as it was then," she said. "Our patients are primarily young and healthy, with the majority presenting with a periodontal Type I (gingivitis) condition. This is perfect for a prophy technician because it involves light scaling and polishing. The dentist performs the annual examination at the same appointment as the cleaning, and if no further treatment is needed the service member is considered dentally ready to deploy over the next 12 months."
The Oral Preventive Assistant Curriculum Committee is designing the curriculum, which is approximately three months in length, and believes that OPA program enrollees will be graduates of a CODA-accredited dental assisting program or certified dental assistants by the Dental Assisting National Board.
Many of the OPA's skill sets are already in the curriculums of many CODA-accredited dental assisting programs—such as application of fluoride and sealants and dental hygiene instruction.
"The OPA will expand in those areas along with selective clinical applications to better understand the instruments, instrumentation and proficiency in periodontal Type I scaling procedures," said Adm. Turner. "This will allow the dentist, dental hygienist and dental team an expanded preventive capability that allows more flexibility to support increased access to care."
"The three months' training program will be certification instead of licensure," she added, "because the program encompasses reversible procedures."
ADA President Mark Feldman appointed the Oral Preventive Assistant Curriculum Committee.
In the long term, there is a potential for both the CDHC and OPA training programs to be CODA-accredited pending support from states.
Taken from: http://www.adafoundation.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=2985
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