Lisandra Maisonet, BS, RDH, PHDHP, EFDA, CDA
What is your “why” behind your passion for dental hygiene?
As preventive specialists, our services can lead to positive health outcomes for patients. I have the opportunity to enhance patient care by ensuring good processes are in place in the practice. With a reignited passion; I’m excited to share how I can help change the face of our profession. Change on a grand level is exciting, but it’s even more exciting to push my dental practice toward excellence!
What is your focus for 2023?
It’s so important for hygienists to effect change in their practices. Any negativity in our profession points back to substandard conditions in individual practices. What if hygienists came together to drive change and enhance their practice roles! If we can inspire practice owners to trust our suggestions, maybe we wouldn’t be exiting this profession in droves. I’d love to help others rekindle their love for patient care. Making a difference on a smaller scale might ignite a flame that spreads like wildfire from practice to practice.
Katrina M. Sanders, MEd, BSDH, RDH, RF
What has been your greatest success?
I lovingly share that I had to kiss many proverbial frogs before I found my Prince Charming, and by this I don’t only mean my incredibly kind and good-looking fiancé, but more specifically, the doctors I work with. As a dental hygienist for AZPerio, I am continually supported in elevating my standards, and my doctors care endlessly about the provision of excellence. I know not all dental hygienists feel supported by their doctors in standards of excellence, so I know how lucky I am that my greatest success is finding not just a dental home, but working within a dental “empire.”
What has been your hardest lesson?
I graduated from hygiene school at a time when the dirtiest mouths were those of my newfound colleagues when they said, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” Simply put, as a new graduate, I didn’t care about how we’ve always done it—especially when it meant we were tolerating negligence and substandard care. My hardest lesson was the most empowering one: I did not enter this profession to abandon my standards and align with archaic practices, and when I took my oath, I promised that I would give the community my best. For me, my best means not “playing the game,” but rather, being the “game changer.”
Crystal Spring, BS, RDH, LAP
What is your “why” behind your passion for dental hygiene?
My “why” has been my biggest motivation. I desperately want to improve oral health disparities, and I am crazy enough to believe that it can be done. Growing up in an area with low access to care and having friends and family suffer from access-to-care issues really made an impact on me.
What is your focus for 2023?
Medical/dental integration—I am all in. As dental hygienists, we know how important oral health is to a person’s overall health. We talk endlessly about the oral-systemic link, so why is it that so many of our friends, family, and community members don’t understand how important oral health is? There are so many barriers to care. That is why I believe we all need to work together to improve oral and overall health. I believe that together we can make a change.
Read last month's RDH Advisory Board Spotlight ... Marianne Dryer, Amber Lovatos, Ryan Rutar
Editor's note: This article appeared in the September 2023 print edition of RDH magazine. Dental hygienists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.
