Sunstar celebrates 19 years of honoring dental hygiene’s finest, naming this year’s Award of Distinction recipients

SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, May 18, 2020 - Sunstar Americas Inc. and RDH are celebrating their 19th year of honoring North America’s outstanding dental hygienists. The oral health-care leader and RDH magazine joined forces to create the Award of Distinction program in 2002. Since then, 129 dental hygienists have been recognized for their success and accomplishments in the field of dental hygiene. The four most recent recipients of this prestigious award will be honored during an award ceremony at the RDH Under One Roof conference in Denver, Colorado, on October 10, 2020.

“We congratulate the exceptional recipients of this year’s Sunstar/RDH Award of Distinction, and are proud to honor those who are advancing the dental hygiene profession, making a difference now and shaping the future,” says Tad Hartlaub, Sunstar’s senior manager of professional marketing.

“Since establishing this award nearly two decades ago, we’ve seen strategies for reducing oral disease shift from an emphasis on disease treatment to a focus on prevention and management. This shift has seen the role of the dental hygienist evolve and become even more critical than ever before. It’s so important to continue to shine a light on these professionals, who inspire all of us with their passion, innovation and dedication to help their patients live healthier lives.”

The 2020 Sunstar/RDH Award of Distinction honorees are:

• Jennifer Geiselhofer, RDH, of Denver, Colorado: founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Deserving Dental and owner of Dental At Your Door providing care to the underserved with portable dental hygiene services.
• Jaclyn Klepadlo, BSDH, RDH, of Mays Landing, New Jersey: cochairman of the Veterans Smile Day Foundation and past president of the New Jersey Dental Hygienists’ Association focusing on the needs of our returning veterans.
• Karen Thomas, MS, RDH, LN, CNS, FDN-P, CHHC, Certified Biological Dental Hygienist of Raleigh, North Carolina: through personal health challenges, she has become a published author and speaker on the benefits of functional medicine and nutrition.
• Lisandra Maisonet, RDH, BS, PHDHP, EFDA of Trevose, Pennsylvania: director of operations/clinical educator of 22 dental offices, adjunct clinical dental hygiene educator, current educator for Healthy Teeth Healthy Children program and past presenter of statewide oral care initiatives, focused on the voice of the RDH and the oral-systemic connection.

Editor's note: This is a joint press release between Sunstar and RDH magazine.

About Sunstar, the makers of GUM

Sunstar Americas, Inc. is a member of the Sunstar Group of companies, a global organization headquartered in Switzerland that serves oral healthcare professionals, patients, and consumers in 90 countries around the world. Sunstar has always had a commitment to dentistry and to good oral healthcare. Since its founding in 1923, Sunstar Americas, Inc. has been a respected leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of breakthrough oral healthcare products of the highest quality. Sunstar continues to work with clinicians, academics, and scientific researchers to design, manufacture and distribute high quality oral healthcare products. Sunstar provides quality oral care products under the GUM® and GUIDOR® brands. For more information, visit: https://us-professional.gumbrand.com/ 

About RDH magazine

RDH is the top magazine for dental hygiene professionals. RDH provides hygienists key information on professional growth, including clinical analysis, practice management advice, continuing education opportunities, career strategies, and more. Each month, RDH also publishes the RDH eVillage and RDH Graduate e-newsletters. RDH partners with DentistryIQ to deliver timely info on news, case studies, product info, salary studies, and more. For more information, visit rdhmag.com.