By Katie Schnorrenberg, RDH

My name is Katie Schnorrenberg and I have been a hygienist for 15 years. I love the connection that I have with my patients and I enjoy seeing improvements in their oral health. I work in a general dental office with another amazing hygienist. She has encouraged me to utilize the dental laser as a standard practice tool in periodontal therapy. We are fortunate to work with a dentist who values periodontal health and supports us as clinicians in improving our patient’s oral health by the use of the dental laser.

By Lynn Atkinson, RDH

Traditional non-surgical periodontal therapy has been performed by the dental hygienist for decades. The ultimate goal is to treat and thenmaintain periodontal health. There are several adjunctive therapies available for the clinician to incorporate along with non-surgical periodontal therapy. The combination of using lasers and custom designed medicament trays, such as Perio Trays^TM,  can be integrated into protocols allowing us to treat our patients more comprehensively while focusing on improving oral and whole-body health.  

By Kristin Pristavec-Hunter, RDH, BS

Starting a new job can be intimidating on its own, but as a contract hygienist "filling-in" is like the first day, every day. With COVID, this makes that first-day experience more worrisome. Safety protocols vary between each office, you never know what to expect. Some offices have gone bare bones and even ask that the clinician bring their own PPE while others have made a big effort in upgrading practice systems and give you every piece of PPE you could imagine.