Proud of my OP

Editor's Note: This article about Elizabeth Grillo is the first installment of our "Proud of My Op" series. Are you proud of your op too? Send us some details about your happy dental home as a dental hygienist, and we will review your comments to be feautured in RDH magazine. Please click here for a short survey about your op.

Elizabeth Grillo, RDH, works in two dental offices in the San Francisco area. For almost 10 years, she has worked for Glen Park Dental for three days week. The dental office is across the street from a subway (B.A.R.T.) station just off Interstate 280 in the south part of San Francisco.

“Glen Park Dental is amazing as far as the architecture of the office. It is the only bi-level office I know of in San Francisco that has a waterfall in the office,” she said. “They have a laser, intraoral camera, digital x-rays, and they are a completely paperless office.”

She also works one day a week at the Pacific Sky Dental office in Daly City. She recently started the position at Pacific Sky, working there on Saturdays.

“It is a pretty new office with incredible equipment to use,” Grillo said. “I wanted to work on Saturdays for half a day just to pick up extra cash. I didn’t get the job initially. So I temped for them for a while. They have at least four hygienists working for them.”

Among her equipment used on a frequent basis is a Midwest RDH Freedom cordless handpiece. The Pacific Sky operatory has an air polisher too, while the Glen Park office features a dental laser and Isolite lighting isolation. She said her patients at the Glen Park office appreciate her use of 3M Vanish Varnish for desensitizing patients.

“I am proud to be working in my operatories because I have many tools and instruments that many would dream about to have,” Grillo said. “I have a laser and have been certified since 2004. I have an air polisher in one office and I’m working on having it in the other. In both offices, we offer warmed towels for after treatment wipes. Patients love to come back to the office for that spa-like experience. I truly believe that the more we have to offer to patients, the better the dental experience for them.”

For personal protection, she owns a pair of SurgiTel loupes for Glen Park Dental. But she added that the Pacific Sky Dental office has “loupes that are 3.0 as backups for anyone who has forgotten theirs. He has battery packs available for the office in case your battery is dead. He also has regular goggles with lights on them in case you forget your loupes.”

The Pacific Sky office features two televisions in each operatory to enhance the patient’s enjoyment of the dental appointment. One TV is mounted on the wall opposite from the patient, and the other one is on the ceiling. The office subscribes to Roku, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon.

“The patients have headphones and glasses. We have doors for privacy and keeping the noise levels down,” Grillo said.

Grillo pointed to four “must haves” for home care that she dispenses or recommends to patients—the Burst sonic toothbrush, Cocofloss, Sensodyne True White toothpaste, and Listerine Total Care Zero mouthwash.

On a personal note, Grillo, who was born and raised in San Francisco, has studied flamenco dancing for a number of years.

She said, “On my off time, I am very involved with flamenco dancing. I had been dancing for seven years, and I was a board member for Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco for two years. I am now involved with producing flamenco documentaries with a director who just got signed on with Amazon. We got noticed for a short documentary we did on one of the cofounders of Theatre Flamenco.

“The film is called ‘My Life in Dance,’ which got recognized in four film festivals on the West Coast. We are currently in post-production of a documentary about the 50th anniversary of Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco.”