Like many career dental professionals, I began as a teenage dental assistant. I took every opportunity to learn anything “dental” and eventually managed a multi-doctor practice while in hygiene school. This girl was so excited to enter the world of dental hygiene!
Thirty years ago, my first employers provided incredible training with consultants and extracurricular workshops and CE.
After moving from San Francisco where the opportunity had been optimum a fantastic opportunity to live and work in Australia came about and the next 5 years my time was spent being a mom and teaching part time courses in anatomy/physiology and pharmacology. In 2000 we moved back to the USA. This is where I discovered how fortunate I had been to be able to launch my career with the top dentists and thought leaders.
Temping and struggling to find a comparable home, it became clear I was working within a system that limited my ability to properly care for my patients. I believed hygiene was so important in terms of overall health, but it was also the driving force in a successful dental business. The system was failing me and my patients.
It didn’t matter where I worked, patients were being told “Everything looks good!” “See you in 6 months!” “Put a ‘watch’ on that.” or “Let’s check it next time”. This, after having spent nearly an hour explaining findings of dental disease, the negative systemic impacts and providing solutions, sick patients would leave thinking everything was fine. I felt so defeated.
Out of complete disillusionment, scaler2schedule was born. Being a solution-driven person in what seemed to be a failing system, I created a program based on optimum patient care and the beautiful side effect was an extremely successful and profitable dental business