Hygiene Tribune U.S. No. 1, 2018
A look back at the ADHA meeting
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HYGIENE TRIBUNE
The World’s Dental Hygiene Newspaper · U.S. Edition
FEBRUARY 2018 — Vol. 11, No. 1
www.dental-tribune.com
A look back at the ADHA meeting
Left, the prophy queen (a
giant Vera prophy angle
adorned with a tiara) holds
court in the Young Dental
booth in the ADHA annual
conference exhibit hall.
Below, Queen Vera is
tucked in for the night at
the Hyatt Regency. Photos/
Observations from the ‘City of Bridges’
By Patricia Walsh, RDH
Editor in Chief, Hygiene Tribune
O
nce upon a time, in the land of
bridges and crowns, a purplecloaked prophy queen reigned
over her happy subjects. So
beloved was she that her ladies in waiting
tucked her into bed each night at the Hyatt Regency.
Now it had to be the Regency, didn’t it?
A plain old ordinary Hyatt would not befit
the queen of hygiene, especially during
the American Dental Hygienists’ Association 94th Annual Conference. In addition
to attracting the prophy queen (a giant
Vera prophy angle, adorned with a tiara
and holding court in the Young Dental
booth), to this “City of Bridges,” the conference brought together dental hygien-
ists from throughout the country to the
Prime Osborn Convention Center, June
14–17, to “learn, engage and advance.”
Change is in the air
Many of the lectures I attended were
peppered with comments that reflected the hope that someday every state
would allow a form of advanced dental
hygiene to be practiced. The discussions
about hygienists as mid-level providers strengthened my backbone. With the
advancement of real-time teledentistry,
the “supervised-exam” argument falls by
the wayside. And now that our existing
mid-level providers have been practicing for a decade, proponents can point
to treatment statistics to document the
exact number of patients served with no
“hospitalizations and/or deaths.” It’s no
longer a fairy tale. The value of mid-level
Provided by Young Dental
providers can be quantified with facts
and figures.
Jennifer Berge, ADT, RDH, described to
attendees exactly what it is like to serve
patients within this increased scope of
practice. At Healthfinders Collaborative
in Northfield and Faribault, Minn. (health
findersmn.org), she is empowered to perform certain restorative procedures. Her
experience confirms that oral health-care
services will expand and modernize not
” See ADHA, page A18
Blasting dental plaque with microbubbles
Whether through an accident or a
disease, teeth loss can cause many inconveniences. Dental implants such as
crowns, however, have allowed people to
overcome most of these and live a better
quality of life.
But just like normal teeth, these dental
implants require proper care and oral hygiene to prevent further complications,
such as the inflammation of the tissues
surrounding the implants. While the
buildup of dental plaque sticks mainly to
the crown, it also adheres to the exposed
parts of the screw that holds the dental fixture in place, and these are much
harder to clean because they contain microgrooves that make them fit better into
the upper or lower jaw bones.
Hitoshi Soyama from Tohoku University and his team from Showa University
in Japan conducted a study to look for
better ways for dentists to remove this
plaque and prevent complications. The
team wanted to study the efficiency of
a cavitating jet, where high-speed fluid
is injected by a nozzle through water to
create very tiny bubbles of vapor. When
these bubbles collapse, they produce
strong shock waves that are able to re-
move contaminants.
The team compared the cleaning effect of a cavitating jet to that of a water
jet, which has been used for a long time
to remove plaque from dental implants
to keep them clean. They grew a biofilm
over three days within the mouths of
four volunteers, then proceeded to clean
that with the two different methods,
measuring the amount of plaque remaining at several time intervals.
While there was little difference between the amounts of dental plaque
removed by both methods after one
minute of cleaning, that changed after
longer exposure. After three minutes,
the cavitating jet had removed about a
third more plaque than the water jet did,
leaving little plaque stuck to the implant
at the end of the experiment.
The cavitating jet was also able to remove the plaque not only from the root
section of the screws, but also from the
harder-to-reach crest section, though to
a lesser extent.
“Conventional methods cannot clean
plaques on the surface of dental implants
very well, so this new method could give
dentists a new tool to better manage
The researchers used a certain
type of nozzle to create the
cavitation bubbles, which
removed the plaque when they
collapsed. Photo/Provided by
Tohoku University
these fixtures, which are becoming more
common,” says Soyama.
Previous research has shown that water flow exerts shear stress to remove
the biofilm. In addition to this shear effect, the cavitating jet also produces a
considerable force when the bubbles
collapse that is able to remove particles
from the biofilm and carry them away.
The researchers suggest that the two processes probably work in synergy to make
the cavitating jet superior to the water jet
when cleaning the plaque off the irregular surface of dental implants.
The full article, “Removal of Oral Biofilm on an Implant Fixture by a Cavitating Jet,” by Junki Yamada, DDS, Takashi
Takiguchi, DDS, Akihiro Saito, DDS,
Hibiki Odanaka, DDS, Hitoshi Soyama
PhD, and Matsuo Yamamoto, DDS, can
be found in the Journal of Implant Dentistry, Dec. 2017, Vol. 26, Issue 6.
(Source: Tohoku University)
[2] =>
[3] =>
A18
HYGIENE TRIBUNE
Hygiene Tribune U.S. Edition | February 2018
“ ADHA, page A16
just through advancements in technology, but also through increased access to
high-quality care from capable providers.
Dedicated practitioners
Following are a few more observations
from Jacksonville about our evolving profession and its dedicated practitioners.
• As science advances, so will dental hygiene career opportunities. Personalized,
preventive care is becoming more precise.
At the forefront are scientists such as David Wong, DMD, DMSc, associate dean for
research at the UCLA School of Dentistry,
who believes saliva is the body’s mirror.
His team at UCLA is at the forefront of
using saliva as a diagnostic medium for
early identification of a wide variety of
health issues (Scientificamerican.com/
products/the-future-of-oral-health/#).
• Health-care providers know that creative approaches are often needed to
achieve patient compliance. Scientific
facts might resonate with an engineer,
but an artistic personality might gravitate more toward natural products. Hygienists need adaptability and constant
education to know which trends are
delivering legitimate results and which
are quackery. Two notable alternative
products that fall on the legitimate side
are the PerioPatch from Izun Pharmaceuticals, designed to relieve symptoms
of inflammation, and a mouthwash from
The Natural Dentist, formulated with no
alcohol and no artificial colors, flavors or
preservatives.
• How many times have you said the
following to a patient? “It’s a dental office,
we have to make our own fun.” Hygienists
may not have a fine arts degree, but many
of us possess a great deal of creativity.
Who hasn’t used a posterior curette on an
anterior tooth with 4 mm of lingual root
exposure?
• I love the fact that there is always a
line at the booth giving away penguin
prophy angles. Or is it a puffin?
At the ADHA annual conference in the ‘City of Bridges’ (Jacksonville, Fla.), Hygiene Tribune Editor in Chief Patricia Walsh sees evidence everywhere
of expanding career opportunities and responsibilities for dental hygienists. Photo/Provided by Patricia Walsh
• A stone’s throw from the penguin/
puffin, someone was having a discussion about the arginine in Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief Desensitizing Paste — and
where the amino acid also is found in our
diet (pistachios, peanuts, turkey, to name
a few foods). Our knowledge base and
ability to cross-reference not only help us
live better lives they also make dental appointments a more enjoyable experience
for everyone.
• On the exhibit-hall floor, a few hygienists were joyously contemplating how to
blast subgingival biofilm with HuFriedy
glycine. “Have you ever felt glycine? It’s
super soft,” one hygienist said to another.
The two oohed and ahhed as they rubbed
it between their fingertips.
• While my Planmeca-sponsored course
focused on taking a digital impression of
a crown prep, the hygienist next to me
nodded in immediate approval from an
alternative perspective, pronouncing,
“Night guards. We do a lot of night guards.
Yep, this is the way to go.”
• The CAD/CAM manufacturers are
starting to take notice of who will be taking digital impressions in the future. The
wands are being offered in sizes to better
fit the range of hand sizes among hygien-
ists and assistants.
• If you’re a lousy photographer with
decent photo-editing abilities, you might
soon find yourself becoming the top
crown designer in your office. In states
where the dental-auxiliary job market is
highly competitive, learning CAD/CAM
software could give you an edge.
• It doesn’t take too long to see which
corporations recognize and value hygienists as key opinion leaders. It’s not so
much in the trinkets they give away; it’s
in the attitude of their sales reps and the
content of their lectures.
• Laurie Hernandez, one of the meeting’s keynote speakers, greeted attendees
with, “Hello smile makers and confidence
boosters!” She is a volcano of positivity.
Anyone who didn’t leave her talk inspired
must not have a pulse. At 15, she overcame broken bones to go on to become a
U.S. Olympic gymnastics gold and silver
medalist. The audience also was treated
to great stories about her becoming a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Hernandez readily acknowledged that
she talks to herself before a routine. During the Olympics, the media caught her
saying her affirmation — “I got this” —
and it’s become her catch phrase. Have
you ever noticed when a gymnast lands at
the end of a routine, it’s with that frozen,
ballet-like backward hand pose? I was so
fired up after hearing her stories, I imagined myself finishing a patient and then
taking that flipped wrist pose in the hall.
I’ve been known to clench my teeth and
mutter under my face mask from time to
time — usually at 4 p.m., when I’m tired.
But I can’t remember ever saying, in an affirmative way: “I got this!”
I plan to change that.
Patricia Walsh, RDH, BS, has been a clinical dental hygienist for more than 20 years.
She is a graduate of the Fones School of Dental Hygiene, University of Bridgeport in
Connecticut. She has an extensive history in international volunteer work in oral
health, including being instrumental in the creation of The Thailand Dental Project, a
volunteer program focused on providing educational, preventive and restorative
dental care to children in a tsunami-affected region of Thailand. Contact her at
pwalshrdh@uberhygienist.com.
‘Medicare Dental Toolkit’ offered by Oral Health America
A Medicare Dental Toolkit from Oral Health America is designed to assist those advocating
for the addition of a dental benefit to Medicare. Photo/Provided by Oral Health America
Oral Health America has released a
new Medicare Dental Toolkit to assist
those advocating for the addition of a
dental benefit to Medicare. The toolkit
includes resources to support communication and partnerships among allied
organizations and policy makers to forge
a path toward achieving dental coverage
in Medicare.
Initial tools include an infographic, a
social media guide with shareables as
well as a position paper and supplemental research reports. The intent is to make
this a living toolkit and to continue adding collateral monthly.
The toolkit can be accessed online at
oralhealthamerica.org/medicaretoolkit.
“This organic toolkit will be a valuable
asset for our partners and other organiza-
tions that are championing a dental benefit in Medicare,” said OHA President and
CEO Beth Truett. “With almost 55 million
older adults receiving their health care
services through Medicare — and that
number growing each day — now is the
time to elevate the conversation around
the creation of a publicly funded dental
benefit.”
The toolkit made its debut at OHA’s
Medicare Symposium, Part 3: Access
for Older Adults — Advocating for Oral
Health in Medicare, where a variety of
voices from fields of oral health, aging,
Medicare and health policy came together around a shared commitment to the
oral and overall health of older adults.
(Source: Oral Health America)
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