Greetings,

I am your 2019-2020 Greater Houston Dental Hygienists’ Association President. This

year my goal is to provide experiences and opportunities for our members. We are

aiming to serve hygienists of Houston better. We kicked off the year by a very

successful Taco-Tuesday themed meeting and then having our first professional

development and resume workshop. As GHDHA president-elect, I met with Ann Battrell

ADHA CEO and ADHA past-president Michele Braerman to discuss the resources

available to GHDHA. I also represented GHDHA at the University Texas School of

Dentistry at Houston’s graduation, the Greater Austin new graduates’ licensing happy

hour, and at PIMA’s scientific poster presentations. I hope that this year will be a

fruitful year for all of us. Please feel free to reach out to me if you think there is

anything GHDHA can do to serve you better.

Thank you for allowing me to serve you,

Amber Lovatos, R.D.H., B.S.D.H.

GHDHA President

ghdhspresident@gmail.com

Hygienically Speaking

Fall 2019

SAVE THE DATES

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Dental Supply Drive

10/1 monthly

meeting

Healthy Kids

Festival on October

26. Time TBA.

REGISTER FOR BIG CE HERE

San Jose Clinic

Dental Sealant Day

10/19/2019

7:30am-12:00pm

2615 Fannin St.

Houston TX 77002

Register using the

QR code

https://www.cezoom.com/events/?course=4496&fbclid=IwAR0cuI809

j8aZeKg0k0LYv3tclgvh8Yd13hMbnnl46CcoKYa4kh4-NChzTU

Greetings,

My name is Angela Do and I am your new TDHA Trustee. I have served as your secretary for

the past three years and I am excited to now serve on the state level.

APPOINTMENTS

Lynda Bean has been elected as District IX Trustee. She served as TDHA Professional

Development Director. The position has now been transitioned to Monna Barin-Carpenter

due to Lynda Bean's new position.

TDHA CE OPPORTUNITIES

November 1st will be the Leadership & Libations CE course from 1:00pm-5:00pm at the

Holiday Inn Express Salado-Belton. Overview: "A leadership & wine tasting workshop for

dental hygienists with Katrina M. Sanders RDH, BSDH, M.ED, RF a Level 1 Sommelier and

an international speaker. Katrina will serve hand-selected wines while delivering course

content of professional and personality profiles, self-evaluation in various competencies,

visioneering and leadership tactics through development of critical thinking,

communicating and problem-skills.... All with a wine glass in hand.

Join TDHA for a Wine & CE Retreat on Saturday, November 2nd. We will meet at the

Salado Holiday Inn Express for registration opening at 8:00 am. Yoga & Ergonomics with

Tiffany Schreiner will begin at 8:30. After we are loosened up, we will hop on the bus and

head to Fredericksburg. Marianne Dryer, RDH, M.ED (The Ultrasonic Whisperer) and

Katrina Sanders, RDH, M.ED, RF (The Dental Winegenist) will provide courses on the 2017

AAP Periodontal Classifications Staging & Grading as we travel to and from

Fredericksburg. While we enjoy a dinner with wine pairings hosted by our sponsors, we will

learn about their products.

Admission includes 6 CE credits, Yoga & Ergonomics, limousine bus ride through

Fredericksburg Wine Trail, Lunch, Wine Tastings & Wine-Paired Dinner with Barrel Tasting:

4.0 Cellars, 290 Wine Castle, and Hilmy Winery.

The TDHA Annual Conference will take place in San Marcos from February 6-9th,

2020. The keynote speaker will be Jasmin Haley, RDH, MSDH, CDA

(www.beyondtheprophy.com).

TDHA NEWS FROM OUR TRUSTEE – ANGELA DO

https://www.cezoom.com/events/?conf=463

https://www.cezoom.com/events/?conf=469

HYPAC

Members are encouraged to make the Texas HYPAC pledge, to our political action

committee. Your money goes towards helping us with our legislative efforts. Without

financial assistance, we are at a greater disadvantage. You’re probably thinking, “I am

already signed up.” but you need to RENEW YOUR PLEDGE EVERY YEAR! If you have not

filled out the pledge form this year, you are currently not contributing to TX HYPAC. We are

currently down 60 pledges from where we were last year. Monthly pledges can be made in

any amount. On the previous page, you will find the pledge form.

IOH

TDHA is excited to launch the Lynch Creek Farm IOH Fundraiser this year! They have Fall,

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Winter products available. 15% of purchases go to IOH. I

purchased a few last year as gifts for Christmas and everyone LOVED them! They arrived

fresh and promptly. Please use this link when purchasing so proceeds will go towards

Greater Houston IOH goal: https://www.lynchcreekfundraising.com/f/1077965 . Feel free

to share this link as well!

TDHA Governmental Affairs

From our GAC Director, Janessa Bock: "On August 23,2019 a new rule went info effect!

Regulation of Silver Diamine Fluoride, specifically comments in support or opposition of

rulemaking restricting the application of Silver Diamine Fluoride. The Board has received a

rulemaking request to permit only Dentists and Registered Dental Hygienists to apply

Silver Diamine Fluoride."

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me!

Best,

An-Chih (Angela) Do, R.D.H., B.S.D.H.

TDHA Trustee

GHDHA Website Chair

NEW AND REINSTATED MEMBERS

Welcome and thank you for joining the ADHA/ TEXAS DENTAL HYGIENISTS'

ASSOCIATION!

As a member, you will have access to ADHA.org which is filled with new technologies, published

work, professional and educational opportunities along with alerts on legislative developments.

ADHA members receive discounts on insurance, hotel/car rentals, continuing education, and

personal/professional discounts. I would like to encourage all ADHA members to reach out to non-

members and introduce yourselves and invite them to a monthly meeting and to your new Social

Hour this spring. Membership is important to our organization/Dental Hygienists', we want the best

for our careers and do not want anyone to take away our job or degrade our profession.

Meredith Bryan ~ Saira Gamino ~ Van Nguyen

Christine Bahun ~ Susan Fuller ~ Debbi Horak ~ Kimberly Paz ~ Katheryn Prather

~ Julie Rey ~ EuNiece Samuel-TurkFrancis ~ Sutandra Tarafdar

Check out our new Grads and members of our association! Congratulations on your

achievement!!! We look forward to seeing you at our meetings and connecting …

Rafael Aguinaga ~ Alexandria Alvarado ~ Maci Alvarado ~ Maura Auderer ~ Jasmine

Ayala ~ Justice Brooks ~ Malorie Broussard ~ Cemarell Brown ~ Thuy-Kieu Bui ~

Tori Buntyn ~ Katherine Burk ~ Priscilla Cantu ~ Vianey Castillo ~ Karen D’Mello ~

Alyssa Delzell ~ Tyler Ferguson ~ Meagan Fondren ~ Ashley Ford ~ Xiomara Galarza

~ Monica Galbraith ~ Jaycee Galloway ~ Christopher Garcia ~ Diana Garcia ~

Jacqueline Garcia ~ Marcus Garza ~ Danielle Gasca-Marquez ~ Lauren Grant ~

Christopher Grimes ~ Jesus Guevara ~ Stephanie Gulick ~ Megan Haynes ~ Ivonne

Hernandez ~ Chelsea Hubbard ~ Whitney Jatzlau ~ Kerri Kaiser ~ Sarah Khan ~

Sehar Khawaja ~ Heather Kier ~ Anna La Bianca ~ Marielle Ladieras ~ Tien Lam

~ Denisse Leyva ~ Maryum Malik ~ Rosanna Mehrinfar ~ Samantha Menapace ~

Sadie Mercer ~ Sukirti Misra ~ Vanessa Mora ~ Jonathan Nguyen ~ Lisa Nguyen ~

Stephanie Nguyen ~ Victoria Nguyen ~ Vy Nguyen ~ Trevor Noyola ~ Jacqueline

Nunez ~ Michelle Nunez ~ Arturo Orozco ~ Crystal Orozco ~ Maria Osypova ~

William Paz ~ Isabel Perez ~ Lac Hong Pham ~ Emily Riemer ~ Kimberlee Ryder ~

Angelica Sakihara ~ Sara Smart ~ Danyell Soliz ~ Allison Stanley ~ Kathrine Stone

~ Loreal Taylor ~ Madeline Towns ~ Diana Truong ~ Unique Ung ~ Gerardo Urbine

~ Allison Valastro ~ Wendy Villa ~ Michael Villegas ~ Jennie Vo ~ Erika

Washington ~ Samantha Youd ~ Aimee Zhou

GHDHA Student Liaison – Alfa Castaneda

On Tuesday August 27th, TDHA, GHDHA and BADHA visited with the Senior students of PIMA that will be

graduating October 2019. We were welcomed by GHDHA-Past President, current Faculty Advisor, Professor at

PIMA, Suzanna Stevens. During our presentation we emphasized the importance of Dental Hygienists working

together to promote and protect our profession. We discussed how important it is to transition from student

membership to professional membership as soon as they get their license. So that they can take advantage of

the free trial membership and attend monthly meetings at NO COST. This will enable them to get their feet wet

and experience what being a professional member is all about. Also, students were shown how to register for

CEZoom to facilitate registering for monthly meetings. Students were also invited to attend a Professional

Workshop hosted by GHDHA that will include help with resumes, free professional headshots & discussions by

professionals of different aspects of dental hygiene. Student Liaisons Kate Stone & Alfa Capetillo along with

Membership Chair Nisa Hashmani organized Kahoot game & prizes for the students. BADHA President,

Chriszelda Luna, brought Nothing Bundt Cake bundtinis for the students and invited students to BADHA

meetings. TDHA President, Connie Groves, discussed the benefits of having a professional membership and

passed out a list of benefits for each student.

All in all, our visit to PIMA was a success & the collaboration of TDHA, GHDHA & BADHA serves as an

encouragement for Hygienist to work together to move our profession forward.

GHDHA sponsored the UTSD SCADHA Meet &

Greet Event on August 8th. This is where 2nd yr

Hygiene students are partnered up with 1st yr

students in order to mentor them through their

challenging 1st yr of hygiene school. This helps

create an atmosphere of camaraderie and

encouragement in order to ensure the success of

students within the program.

Student Liaison committee also

contributed towards the TACO Tuesday

theme for GHDHA’s first Meeting of the

year! We wanted to help kickstart a fun &

effective year that is focused on the

edification & benefit of All its members,

students & professionals alike.

On August 7, 2019, GHDHA and BADHA visited UTSD students during their New Student Orientation. Representatives

from both organizations included BADHA President, Chriszelda Luna, BADHA Student Liaison, Kate Stone, GHDHA

President, Amber Lovatos & GHDHA Student Liaison, Alfa Castaneda. Lunch was catered by Olive Garden and sponsored

by BADHA. Both organizations coordinated efforts during a joint presentation describing ADHA and its importance in the

hygiene profession. An emphasis was placed on this year’s goal, “ADHA wants us to go far together”. To illustrate the

goal, students were separated into 4 groups and took part in an interactive game that allowed them to take up specific

roles, communicate effectively & work together to accomplish the goal together. We are excited and can’t wait for the

Class of 2021 to unleash their potential! Thank you to all the UT Faculty & Staff for inviting us and for helping make this a

successful event!

Greetings from the Student Chapter of American Dental

Hygienists’ Association

Houston Community College - Colman During the summer we had a six-week clinic course

that challenged us in new ways and made us better

clinicians! We went our separate ways to enjoy our

summer but are coming back this semester with

renewed energy because our dream is within reach! All

the effort that we have put in for the past year is close

to paying off. To us back to school means we are

seniors! We made it through the first three semesters

and are just two semesters away from becoming

dental hygienists which is a big step toward reaching

our goal of becoming dental hygienists. It is exciting

yet challenging at the same time. Though challenging,

we feel less overwhelmed and more prepared to tackle

this semester. Now, we are expected to be more

professional, time efficient and knowledgeable. It is

great getting back to clinic and sharpening our skills to

get ready for our last semester. Another exciting

aspect of back to school is meeting new freshmen. It

has been very exciting getting to know them and help

guide them. This semester we will get to work one on

one with the community. This will be rewarding not

only because we will expand our experiences, but we

also will have the opportunity to help other people,

which is the ultimate goal of our career. Preparing for

the licensing exams is a big part of this senior year so

we have to work even harder. It may be demanding

but with each other’s help, our instructors, and all the

available resources at Coleman College we are

committed to successfully getting to graduation and

passing licensing exams!

PIMA Medical Institute

Oh my! How things have changed at Pima Medical Institute for our future dental hygienists! For starters,

we have a brand-new home. We are so thankful for our beautiful new facility about ten minutes from our

old home, accompanied by new technology, classrooms and study areas to better serve the students.

We also have for the first time in PMI history, four cohorts on the journey of becoming some incredible,

proficient dental professionals.

Cohort 9 - Radhika Patnana (First year) - Hello there :) We are cohort 9 at Pima Medical Institute in

Houston, TX. Our first semester in Dental Hygiene school is going amazing! We are a very passionate and

motivated group. We are loving our first set of classes and we’re very excited for our continuation of

studies in the field!

Cohort 8 – Mery Nguyen (First year) - We are now moved into our new building. I would say it was a bit

hectic having to relearn and transition to the new location. But in life, some things have to be completely

shaken up, changed and rearrange to place us where we are meant to be. We are all comfortable with

each other at this point and are able to work together as a team. These changes help make us grow

stronger as a team and to understanding our weaknesses and strengths. We are all still learning but

progressing on together. We are now in Clinic 1, seeing patients! Honestly, we all agree it was

overwhelming in the beginning, but this is what we all have been waiting for. Weeks pass and we are still

adjusting but we now understand the process. Now all that is left this semester is to push forward and

continue to the end strong.

Cohort 7 – Brittany Riley (Second Year) – We are moving right along on our journey through dental

hygiene school! Can you believe this is semester 4?! Time sure does fly when you're having a good time.

Clinic II is more than halfway over, and we are hustling and bustling to meet all of our requirements. This

is our first semester starting Process of Care (POC) and case studies on patients so it has been quite a

learning experience. We've had a few community outreaches events in which members of our cohort

participated on the weekends such as the Backpack Round-up with McGee Baptist Church and a back-

to-school fair at Langham Creek YMCA. TDHA's (Texas Dental Hygienists' Association) Annual Conference

is quickly approaching. We will be attending the second weekend of February in San Marcos! (Did

someone say shopping??) Last but certainly not least, we would like to give a huge shout-out to

congratulate all of Cohort 7 on their hard work and effort put forth for table clinic presentations.

Congratulations to Nick and Nirali on 1st place, Joyce and Delaney on 2nd place, and Vi, Rozmeena, and

Mahera on 3rd place! Each group did an amazing job! Cohort 7 rocks!!

Cohort 6 – Kelsey Zalesak (Second Year) - The end of the tunnel is fast approaching! We are thirty days

or less from our National Board and one month from our clinical board; the pressure is definitely on! The

studying seems never ending and finishing all the graduation requirements impossible. We are like the

White Walkers from Game of Thrones. We are overcoming all the obstacles and looking forward to

October 18th! For us - almost graduates – we have completely transformed into some astonishing

professionals and are proud to leave our mark on PIMA DH Program.

We are Pima Proud!!

PIMA Medical Institute (cont.)

University of Texas School of Dentistry - Houston

To kick-off the fall semester, UTHealth School of Dentistry (UTSD) recently welcomed its dental hygiene

class of 2021. Along with new students, UTSD also welcomed GHDHA Membership Chair, Nisa Hashmani, as the

newest member of the faculty and first-year clinic coordinator. GHDHA President, Amber Lovatos, recently took

over the second-year clinic coordinator position at UTSD as many faculty stepped into part-time positions after the

summer. The fall semester at UTSD has been very busy. The first-year dental hygiene class will soon be preparing

for officer elections, and many second-year DH students are participating in research and teaching. Cristina Kinn,

a DH2 student at UTSD, is working closely with Jana Johnsrud, GHDHA Awards Chair, in a research project

involving the Geriatric population. There are also a handful of students working closely with faculty in teaching

and research fellowships through the student chapter of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). Two

second-year students were recently awarded scholarships; Dariana Estrada received the Johnson & Johnson

scholarship through the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA), and Kristen Valenzuela received a

scholarship by the Hispanic Dental Association (HDA). In August, UTSD dental hygiene students also took over the

ADHA Instagram page, showcasing ways to support the dental hygiene profession. More updates will follow as the

fall semester comes to a close and the preparation of board exams soon begin.

September 3, 2019 was the very first day of Clinic III for 2nd

years at the Lonestar College - Kingwood. Preparation is the key

to success, but from past experiences we know not everything

will run smoothly. The only thing we can do is to go with the flow

and use the knowledge the faculty so graciously bestow upon

us. First year students are getting used to their new normal

called Dental Hygiene school. They recently had their first

competency on brushing and flossing techniques. We are still

located in our temporary facility until our new Healthcare

building is completed in Summer of 2021.

Vy Nguyen

DH 2 Lone Star College Kingwood

Lone Star College - Kingwood

GHDHA Happenings

CLICK ABOVE AND TO THE LEFT, TO GO

TO OUR NEWLY UPDATED WEBSITE

AND FACEBOOK PAGE!

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM AT

greater_houston_dha

Very Special Thanks to Our Sponsors!

GOLD SPONSORS:

GHDHA Announcements

Ian Michael Chapa

Born July 4, 2019

7 lbs 3oz, 21 in

To proud parents

Felix and Hannah

Medrano

Wanting to get involved with GHDHA? Go big or

keep it simple? We would LOVE to have you join us

in any way you can!

CONGRATULATIONS to these

TEXAS Dental Hygiene

Students!! They all received

ADHA Institute of Oral Health

Scholarships! From the top

left: Dariana Orta from UT

School of Dentistry in Houston

won the Johnson & Johnson

Scholarship for Academic

Excellence. Top right: Kristen

Valenzuela from UT School of

Dentistry in Houston, bottom

right: Marcus Hicks from PIMA

in Houston! WE ARE SO

PROUD!