Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

HYGIENE TRIBUNE The World’s Dental Hygiene Newspaper ·U.S. Edition June 2013 — Vol. 6, no. 5 www.dental-tribune.com The ADHA’s annual meeting — The Center for Lifelong Learning at the 90th Annual Session — is being promoted as a celebration of a century in practice, “100 Years of Dental Hygiene: Proud Past, Unlimited Future.” The events run from June 19–25. With 2013 marking the 100th anniver- sary of the dental hygiene profession, event organizers anticipate the meeting being the biggest in the organization's history. From the first hygienists trained by Dr. Alfred Fones in 1913 to the leading in- novators of today, ADHA will extol the progress and accomplishments of dental hygienists in the oral health care field over the past 100 years. Dental hygienists from across the country and around the world are being invited to come together to prepare themselves to be the pioneers that make the next century of practice as successful as the previous one. CLL at the 90th annual session hosts more than 30 continuing education courses taught by nationally renowned speakers, with six separate career tracks for professionals at all stages of their career, and the possibility of earning up to 20 C.E. hours at one event. Tracks include clinical practice, public health, education, research, professional devel- opment, new practitioner and a separate student track. In addition, the exhibition hall features more than 125 companies displaying information and products representing the latest in oral health. Plenary sessions, on Thursday and Sat- ADHA celebrates profession’s 100th anniversary in Boston American Dental Hygienists’ Association 90th annual meeting runs June 19–25 ” See ADHA, page D4 By Patricia Walsh, rDH editor in Chief T his time last year I went up to Nan- tucket island just off the Massachusetts coast to celebrate the arrival of spring. The daffodil festival is a weekend event benefiting local charities. It allows resi- dents and tourists alike to get a little silly. There are costume contests and goofy hats for both men and women. There’s a dog parade, a kid’s parade and an antique car parade. All of which are adorned with, you got it: daffodils. A colorful island with traditional cobblestone streets, no matter what the season, a slower kinder spirit prevails on Nantucket. I keep a sticker on my iPad as a reminder of this way of life to offset my sometimes sterile electronic world. The oval “travel” sticker reads “A Random ACK of Kindness” — “ACK” being the code for Nantucket Memorial Airport. Eva Grayzel spoke at our local hygiene study club recently. A non-smoker who was diagnosed with late-stage oral cancer, she was given only a 15 percent chance of survival. One of the best speakers I’ve ever heard: She inspires us to do what we already know how to do but sometimes fail to do in between the computer entries, switching plastic on light handles, the wipe down, the missing chart, the perio readings, the re- ferral slip, the cranky last patient. She inspires us to take a deep breath, forget about our “rou- tine” for a few extra minutes, and gather up strength to remember our human- ness. More importantly, to remember the humanness of our patient and the fragil- ity of life. After hearing Eva speak, you get the feeling you really might just be holding your patient’s life in your gauze square. After you tell the patient that you are going to wrap his or her tongue up like a little burrito, did you look underneath wherethegauzesat?Didyoutakethetime to document enough details, or better yet — take a photograph? Measurements and positioning can be subjective. When you hear a frightening tale of misdiagnosis and the misery that unfolds afterward, it's enough motivation to not ever ever ever allow the patient to self-diagnose. In other words, never saying “let us know if it changes” or “we’ll check it at recall.” Suspicious lesions need to be rechecked at a later date with scheduled appoint- ments. When we specifically tell the pa- tient that we are performing an oral can- cer check, we are telling the patient that we care. We are also verbally emphasizing the importance of the exam, rather than just going through the motions. If they go elsewhere, and the exam isn’t done, they Patricia Walsh, RDH will remember your proper oral cancer examination as the gold standard. Many of us have extra bells and whis- tles that can be very entertaining to the patient as an adjunct to our exams, but the down-and-dirty is this: There is no replacement for definitive palpitations — the human touch. Taking the time to roll out the lip, feel the floor of the mouth, touch the palate and caress the neck is so very important. A simple act of kindness Commentary Simpler technologies of the past, brought to mind by the Daffodil Festival on Nantucket Island — juxtaposed with a powerful tale of oral-cancer survival — prompt Hygiene Tribune's editor in chief to reflect on the power of touch in a high-tech world. Photos/Patricia Walsh, Hygiene Tribune ” See KINDNESS, page D5 An iconic Boston image shows stoops of residences in the South End. Photo/Provided by MOTT