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Profile in Oral Health By Trisha E. O’Hehir, RDH, BS, Editorial Director, Hygienetown Magazine

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Career
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Are you enjoying clinical practice, yet still yearn for more? Townies have expressed interest in career alternatives in message board discussions on www.hygienetown.com. On November 11, 2004, Townie “mskris” started a discussion wondering what else there was for hygienists besides clinical hygiene and teaching. It has been a popular discussion, with 77 responses and 2,099 views. Clearly, there is interest in dental hygiene career options.

Have you ever considered leaving dental hygiene? It’s a demanding position that takes its toll physically, due to long hours of compromised positioning, and psychologically when dealing with non-compliant patients. What are the rewards if your body hurts and your message isn’t getting through to the patients?

Before you look outside the profession, let’s see what career options we have within dental hygiene. Some hygienists are just looking for another challenge while others fall into a career path from the start that provides those challenges and satisfying rewards.

I’ve invited three amazing dental hygienists to tell you about their careers and give us some insights into their career paths.

Cindy Kleiman, right, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has worked with medically compromised patients for more than 25 years. She lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area with her husband Jeff and has two grown children.

Hygienetown (HT): Most hygienists shy away from hospital care and never really pursue that direction. Have you always been interested in this area?

Cindy Kleiman (CK): No, not really. I was not interested in hospital care at all. I had never considered this type of work and had no desire to work in a hospital setting. After graduating from dental hygiene school, I worked in clinical practice. One day, out of the blue, the director of my DH program, Irene Woodall phoned me. She asked me to apply for a position in a rehabilitation hospital. I wasn’t interested, but if the director of your program asks you to do something, you do it. Irene must have seen something in me that I was unaware of at the time. Twists of fate are strange – Irene Woodall, having suffered a stroke, is now the type of patient I would treat.

HT: Tell me about your first hospital position.

CK: I worked with Dr. Gilbert Zayon at the Moss Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, where people with traumatic brain injuries, strokes, and spinal cord injuries were treated. The names that come to mind when you think of these types of disabilities are Terry Schiavo, Bob Woodward, Christopher Reeve and Dick Clark. I worked at Moss for less than two years, but it changed my whole career. Dr. Zayon’s passion became my passion. I learned a great deal from him and continue to learn from him.

HT: After leaving Pennsylvania, where was your next position?

CK: I had moved to Arizona and began knocking on doors, offering my skills in hospital dental hygiene care. When I met the people at Good Samaritan Hospital, Good Sam for short, I showed them the mouth sticks I had developed at Moss, allowing quadriplegic patients to paint or type. They hired me and I began the dental program there. Later I became faculty for Phoenix College’s dental hygiene program and was part of a grant to provide dental hygiene care to the homebound. I worked with the students on this grant for eight years. When that grant ended, I remained at the school teaching medical emergencies and medical histories.

HT: What are you doing now?

CK: I’m still teaching at Phoenix College; I also teach CPR, volunteer in a nursing home, and lecture internationally to dental and nursing groups. Currently I’m participating in a hospital-based research project evaluating the link between oral health and systemic health. It’s very exciting to be involved in research at this stage of my career. It’s not something I ever thought I’d be doing, but because of my experience in this field, a physician invited me to work with nurses in this study to address oral health. Doing research is exciting, challenging, and fulfilling. I’m gaining new experiences and enjoying working with the nursing profession.

HT: What advice do you have for hygienists looking for something other than traditional clinical practice?

CK: Find your passion. Do what you love to do. Listen to your mentors. Irene Woodall saw something in me that I didn’t see myself, and when I followed her advice to work with Dr. Zayon at the rehab hospital, I discovered my passion. For me, this work is easy and comfortable. It wasn’t at first, but as I Iearned more, my confidence grew. Today, the thought of doing root planing in a dental practice is frightening, the way my work may seem frightening to clinicians. Find your passion and you’ll be happy.
Cindy Kleiman RDH, BS, oral care consultant and speaker, can be reached at 480-342-9655 or jckleiman@cox.net.



HT: What prompted you to go back to school after completing dental hygiene?

Dawn Ewing (DE): After working in the city for a while, I moved out to the country where I took a basic first aid course (Emergency Care Attendant – ECA) taught by the fire department. They desperately needed paramedics. That sounded interesting, so I completed the two-year paramedic program and went on fire calls in addition to my dental hygiene career.

HT: How did going on calls with the firefighters compare to dental hygiene?

DE: It was an adrenaline rush compared to clinical dental hygiene. I’d get calls in the middle of the night and go out with the fire fighters on all kinds of calls. I then took a job working 24-hour shifts on a 911 ambulance. It surprised me that 99 percent of all injuries and illnesses we were called out to deal with were preventable. My prevention background in dental hygiene took over and I would talk to these people about prevention. I taught CPR, first aid, and babysitting classes. I also started working with an insurance company traveling around the world bringing injured vacationers back to their homes.

HT: Your work in EMS sounds both exciting and rewarding. Did you ever feel torn between dental hygiene and EMS?

DE: I loved the EMS work and actually did drop out of dental hygiene for a couple of months after my son was born but I continued with the EMS work. Then a dentist friend of mine in Houston lost his hygienist and begged me to help him out until he could find a replacement. I finally agreed to work two days/week for 30 days. During that time, a biological dentist in the same building asked me to join his practice. He knew of my EMS background and wanted someone who knew both the medical and the dental aspects of health care. Biological dentistry was new to me and I listened to him talk to patients about mercury and nutrition and it all made sense. However, when I wanted to go back to school, he said, “No problem, I’ll design the job around your school program.” I agreed to try it for a month and I’m still working with him, of course, no longer doing dental hygiene. I have my own integrative medicine practice and do testing for my patients as well as his.

HT: Dawn, tell me what you do in your integrative medicine practice.

DE: I look at the whole person. The mouth may have heavy metals, electrical interferences and/or infections. I review their labs (hair analysis, urine, saliva, blood work). I use pH of body fluids as well as electroacupuncture according to Voll to fact gather. Let’s say a patient comes in complaining of depression. When I am finished there may be a referral to a dentist to have dental work done. If mercury levels are high it can interfere with serotonin levels, causing depression. I might see the need to refer them back to their primary care physician with a letter requesting they rule out diabetes as blood sugar swings can cause depression.

HT: You’re also the executive director of the International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine (IABDM). What else are you doing?

DE: Our son is neurologically impaired. We felt the school district was not meeting his needs, so this year my husband and I began home schooling. I’m actually in my practice fewer hours this school year than last. My husband retired this year and is involved in the home schooling too. He’s also a huge help to me with the executive director work for the IABDM. The academy is planning a cruise for the February 2008 IABDM annual session.

I’m also taking courses to become certified to provide missionary medial care. After this program, I’ll be a doctor of natural medicine and licensed in several countries. In many countries, people can’t afford to take supplements so this program teaches us how to use the indigenous plants and herbs rather than expensive pharmaceuticals and supplements.

HT: What suggestions do you have for hygienists who feel bored with clinical practice?

DE: I’d suggest finding anything that interests you. For fun, start a research project. Maybe use a microscope to look at the subgingival bacteria and then try an alternative approach for reducing the bacteria and the pocket depths. Look at the nutritional depletions based on prescription medications your patients are taking. Do a lingual vitamin C test on your patients and collect data. Getting a research project going gets your mind into a fact-gathering mode. It also elevates the RDH in the eyes of the patients and the team. You don’t have to be bored as a dental hygienist. Find what’s interesting to you and then start asking questions.
Dawn Ewing, RDH, LP, PhD, CTN, can be reached at drdawn@drdawn.net.



HT: How will StrawBerry change clinical practice for dental hygienists and help them achieve health more predictably?

Victoria DaCosta (VDC): Hygienists are some of the smartest people in health care, with a crisp, fresh outlook on health, already focused on the connection between the mouth and the body. StrawBerry provides hygienists a new career option and gives them a way to use their brains more than their hands. Hygienists are not “mouth janitors;” they’re smart and spend a great deal of time counseling and educating patients and incorporating biological approaches already with the microscope and nutritional counseling – all within a “prophy” appointment. With StrawBerry, hygienists can become integrative health consultants and schedule separate health visits for these assessments and consultations. The wellness referral team will include wellness-minded practitioners such as dentists, medical doctors and chiropractors. StrawBerry provides the framework for this new career option. As data is gathered from each of the assessment tools it is entered into the program and then analyzed, providing a mouth and body wellness score that points out body imbalances on three levels: chemical, structural and electromagnetic.

HT: When I think of data collection, the probe comes to mind first, but you’re way beyond that now. What data are you collecting besides periodontal records?

VDC: The probe is our easiest tool for detecting disease in the mouth. What intrigues me now is gathering data on the entire body to identify connections between issues in the mouth and issues in other body organs or systems. Without using body fluids, we can use assessment taking in two areas:1) gather verbal information by interviewing the patient, and 2) instrumentation assessment tools such as bio energy meridian, heart rate variability, chirodontics – looking at body structure related to the mouth – nutritional testing, tongue analysis, and many other assessments.

HT: I know that you’re now teaching others to become integrative health consultants in a series of certification courses. How did you learn about all these new assessments and how they relate to the mouth?

VDC: I’m always learning and investigating new approaches and new tools to achieve patient health. It’s taken me many years to gather the information and put together a team of medical, chiropractic and nutritional consultants to help hygienists and dentists become integrative health consultants in much less time than it’s taken me. I’m not the first. My mentor and role model is Dr. Dawn Ewing, who has been doing this for many years. Dawn is amazing and so willing to share her knowledge and expertise. My goal is to create a training program so others can follow in Dawn’s footsteps with an exciting career option that focuses on whole body health.

HT: Victoria, this sounds so exciting. I’m tempted to go back to clinical practice after 40 years with this amazing career option, but can I make a living at it?

VDC: Absolutely! The income potential is higher than traditional clinical practice and the public wants to know their health status, they want the services of an integrative health consultant. The knowledge base of hygienists is perfect for this new career option. It can be combined with traditional dental hygiene or you can focus on only the health assessment, like Dawn does. Either way, it’s an exciting new career option for dental hygienists and removes the ceiling of “what if I hurt my hands, then what?”
Victoria DaCosta, RDH, BHC, founder and CEO of SaluDent International, Inc., can be reached at victoria@saludent.com.
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