Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
So today we'll be talking about patient engagement
and education in dentistry.
And joining me for this conversation, we have
April Welker,
a regional dental hygiene coach with Dental Care
Alliance,
and Kim Davis, also a dental hygiene coach
at Dental Care Alliance.
April, Kim, so glad to have you on
the podcast today. Thanks so much for making
the time.
Thank you, Erica. We are so happy to
be part of this podcast today. Yes. Thank
you, Erica. We really appreciate you having us
today.
Yeah. Thrilled to have you. And before we
get into the conversation, I wanted to see
if you could both share just a little
bit more about yourselves, your work in the
dental space, really whatever you think will be
helpful for listeners to know.
And Kim, if you wanna kick us off,
go ahead and introduce yourself.
Absolutely.
Thank you again for having us. I have
been in the dental profession for nearly eighteen
years. I began my career as a clinical
hygienist, and I've later expanded into leadership.
Over time, I've had the opportunity to serve
in multiple capacities from chairside clinically and educator,
lead hygienist, and in leadership as a hygiene
coach.
Each stage of my career has shaped how
I view leadership and hygiene.
What's begun as a focus on clinical excellence
has evolved into a passion for developing people,
building culture, and now I'm able to elevate
the standard of care across an organization.
Fantastic. Kim, so great to learn more about
you. Thank you for being here again.
And April, how about you? Tell us about
yourself.
Sure. I feel just incredibly blessed to have
had this twenty year career in the dental
field, and I've had the opportunity to work
with some very talented doctors in both general
and periodontal offices.
And later, I spent about seven years supporting
private practices through focusing on team building,
strong communication and leadership, and implementing systems.
And that's what really prepared me for my
current role, with DCA Now. And I love
that I get to have consistent one on
one hands on coaching
and training with each hygienist, and that's something
that I truly love to do.
Thank you so much, April. And it's really
clear from both of you how passionate you
are about your work in dentistry and,
and patient care. So I'm glad to have
your expertise,
on the line for our listeners today.
And I know April, you just had started
touching on this idea of coaching hygienists and
that really does align with something that we're
seeing more organizations
invest in intentionally. You know, we're seeing them
prioritize
dental hygiene coaching.
So I'd love to know, and Kim, maybe
you can get us started with this one.
Can you tell us a little bit more
about the role of a hygiene coach and
what strategic challenges or opportunities are really driving
more dental groups to formalize this position right
now?
Yes. That's a great question.
A hygiene coach is responsible for building and
sustaining an ideal hygiene department. We're focusing on
clinically,
culturally, and operational aspects of the department.
Dental practices are facing significant retention challenges nowadays.
There's rapid technology advancements and increasing expectations around
patient care standards.
Hygiene coaching addresses all three of these.
The role has been providing a support system
for clinicians, someone who understands both clinical realities
of the operatory
and the operational priorities of the organization.
That alignment is critical.
We're also seeing hygienists eager to expand beyond
the traditional prophy only mindset.
They wanna practice at the top of their
license and integrate new technologies and elevate their
quality of care.
Coaching creates that framework to support the growth
while maintaining consistency,
accountability.
Ultimately, the role shifts the focus from a
volume driven to quality driven outcomes,
which benefits patients, providers, and the business as
a whole.
Yeah. It's great to hear you touch on
those quality outcomes. Kim, I know that as
you mentioned, that spans not just actual clinical
care, but also patient experience and, of course,
you know, organizational repute reputation.
So, April, I'll turn the next question to
you. With all of this in mind, for
clinicians who might be exceptional at chairside care
and delivering high quality care, what does it
actually take to transition into an effective hygiene
coach? You know, maybe you can walk us
through what the day to day
reality of the role looks like and and
even maybe some mindset shifts that are required
to lead and elevate other hygienists.
I'd be happy to. And, you know, when
Kim and I were discussing
some of these questions earlier, we really felt
that, you know, moving from chair psych care
into coaching requires a hygienist to really essentially
take off their loops. You have to step
away and and look at the entire office.
And sometimes as clinicians, we can become very
linear in our day to day routines.
Coaching really requires us to take a broader
lens and look at the whole office and
the whole team.
It really does take a lot of patience,
time, and flexibility.
As we all know, schedules can change rapidly.
You really have to be willing and able
to pivot quickly.
One thing that's also really important is setting
realistic goals is so helpful. Realizing that every
hygienist learns very differently
and results aren't always going to be immediate.
But coaching always comes with its challenges too.
And so there are really tough conversations that
had to be had.
The truth of the truth of it is
not everyone always wants to be coached. And
so in those really hard situations,
we do need to take time to reflect,
change our approach, and always be willing to
go into this in a in a different
way
and be willing to work within these sometimes
difficult situations.
Yeah. You you're raising some really good points
here, April, and I appreciate how it sounds
like
the coaching opportunity can really help
help parts of the workforce see their organization
from a broader lens and maybe more of
an operational lens, which I'm I'm sure
has some benefits to it from, you know,
a satisfaction
standpoint as as someone in the dental workforce,
but then also growing their own skills and
communication,
skills and expertise.
So I appreciate you shedding some light on
opportunities and challenges there.
And, Kim, as a follow-up to that, when
hygiene coaching is done well, what kind of
measurable
impact does it have across the organization,
whether it's, you know, benefits to patients, providers,
operations,
whatever it may be?
I have to agree with April. You really
do have to take on a different different
perspective.
The measurable impact
shows up in several meaningful ways. First, do
you start to see an elevated standard of
care, strong perio programs, improved diagnostics,
more confident case presentation,
and it's rooted in patient education.
Secondly,
I would say that you see improved retention,
both hygienist retention and patient retention.
When clinicians start to feel supported and aligned,
burnout starts to decrease.
When patients experience comprehensive care and consistent care,
trust and loyalty starts to increase.
Third, I do see that I noticed operational
alignment. Coaching connects the clinical priorities
with the business objectives, creating consistency across the
teams and across locations.
But, honestly, I think the most impact is
the cultural impact that it makes.
When I think about hygiene coaching,
I don't think about numbers or check lists.
I think about energy.
I think about passion. I think about walking
into practice and feeling that spark again.
So I guess I would say a true
hygiene coach really helps bring back that spark.
And when you're creating a culture where hygienists
don't just show up to work, they start
to light up, where they feel proud of
the impact they're making every single day,
coaching is done well. Something starts to shift.
Hygienists start remembering why they fell in love
with the profession in the first place
and relationships, the trust, the ability to truly
change someone's health and confidence.
I feel that it creates a space where
growth feels exciting. Feedback starts to become more
empowering and not so critical.
The team starts to rally, and they all
have a shared purpose of elevating patient care
together.
And that's honestly when I start to see
the magic happening.
You can feel it in the room. The
energy is different. There's laughter. There's confidence. There's
ownership. People are getting excited to come to
work because they know that they matter.
That's the kind of culture that we believe
in. That's the kind of culture I believe
in.
When one, when passion is reignited, purpose is
clear and hygiene teams start to thrive. And
when a team is energized and proud of
the care that they're starting to deliver, that
enthusiasm becomes contagious.
It starts to influence patients, providers, and the
organization as a whole.
I appreciate the clear picture you painted there,
Kim, you know, using words like
energized,
getting the passion back, you know, bringing back
a spark.
It's clear that, you know, something that starts
as this kind of one one on one
relationship or coaching scenario,
it can have a lot of profound impact
across clinical care, patient experience and operations. So
thank you so much for outlining all that.
And April, I wanna turn this last question
over to you. You know, as organizations consider
ways to retain dental hygienists and improve care,
what advice would you offer leaders who are
considering this model, this coaching model, or even
hygienists who maybe are aspiring to step into
a coach a coaching role? I'd be happy
to talk about that. I think it really
starts with tying in a lot of what
you and Kim just touched on as well.
I love the words that she said too,
the energy, culture, excitement, magic. Those are things
that we sometimes forget about because we are
in our day to day, and sometimes we
sometimes hygienists and teams are experiencing that burnout.
And when you're really thinking about bringing a
coaching role into your organization, it's so important
to really think about
why you're doing it, what you want to
accomplish by doing it, and what that really
means to your organization. How are you going
to bring
those things that Kim talked about, the energy,
the culture? How are you going to bring
that
to your organization by bringing in a coach?
And so I think, you know, for me,
there's a lot of similarities
between what we do and, like, say a
sports coach. For example,
our role is to motivate, cheer on the
hygienist in the team. We're training them or
encouraging or holding them accountable and to a
higher standard.
Like I said earlier, we have to have
those hard conversations, and that's exactly what coaching
is. I think that's a really good way
to visualize that for your teams.
But it's also important to really hire for
the right attitude. A leadership mindset is just
not about the clinical skills. And so Kim
and I, again, really thought about this question
and talked about what what it would really
mean. So you can have a really great
hygienist that's very strong in her clinical skills,
but that might not always translate
into
real world coaching and how those behaviors,
attitudes, mindset shifts can switch once you're in
a different role. And so you really have
to be aware of personality types, who you're
working with. And just as important as picking
the right person,
you also want to be mindful of
the structure that you're creating in the training
process and the mentoring program for that coach
so they can learn to grow and be
successful in that role too.
All great points, April. Thank you so much
for elaborating on how other organizations can make
this possible and and put coaching into practice.
Before we close, I'd love to give both
of your thoughts on maybe anything we didn't
cover or if there are any final thoughts
that you think our listeners should know.
I really want to, I guess, end to
conclude on a note where we remind ourselves
that hygiene is not just about procedures.
It's not just about teeth or charts or
appointments on a schedule. It's about people.
It's about health. It's about lives.
And we really are spending a lot of
time focusing as hygienists. We're on
the forefront of early detection.
We're often the first to recognize the subtle
signs of systemic disease, the inflammation.
We see the patterns,
the changes that tell the bigger story. And
I love how April said, we take off
our loops and and really get a different
perspective.
We're not just cleaning teeth. We're identifying risk,
educating patients, and in many cases, we're changing
and even saving lives.
As coaches, we have the responsibility and the
privilege
to help others see that bigger vision, to
elevate confidence, to strengthen standards, to inspire excellence.
I love that we get to remind every
hygienist that their role is powerful, it's essential,
and it's deeply impactful.
When we embrace both those roles, clinician and
coach, we don't just improve practices. We elevate
our profession.
And when hygienists truly understand the weight and
the worth of the role that they play
in early detection and whole body health, passion
starts to return.
Their purpose feels deepened
and their impact extends far beyond the operatory.
And I think April can actually agree that
this is the legacy that we're building.
April, anything you wanted to finish with? Yeah.
Absolutely, Kim. That was a perfect answer. I
don't know if I can say anything more,
but what I will add
is that, you know, hygienists are are truly
the life of the practice. We bring so
much value, insight, and energy, education to the
patient experience every day. And as Kim said,
purpose, impact, legacy are such strong, meaningful, impactful
words that and we just wanna say that
we are just so incredibly proud of all
of our DCA hygienists, and our coaching team
is phenomenal. And we just we look forward
to continuing to help
strengthen our team.
Well, it's been such a pleasure, April Kim,
having you on the podcast today. Your both
of your energies are infectious, I have to
say, so I can understand
how this is a role based on everything
you've described. I can see how this is
a role that's resonated with both of you
and also,
kind of how that energy and passion and
kind of reigniting for
maybe connecting to your why as a hygienist.
I can see how you're able to cascade
thank you so much again for joining the
podcast today and sharing all your insights.
Thank you, Erica. We're really honored to be
on your podcast, and and we thank Dental
Care Alliance too for giving us this opportunity
to take part in this role and make
a difference.
Yes. Thank you so much, Erica. We really
appreciate this opportunity.
Oh, likewise. Well and we also, on behalf
of Becker's, wanna thank our podcast sponsor for
today, Dental Care Alliance.
Listeners, be sure to tune into more podcasts
like this from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our
podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.