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Fertile Soil - How Donna Ruley Grew Into the Hygenist She is Today
written by:  Thais Carter - Modern Hygienist Magazine

“I really wanted to go to college, and dental hygiene was a way for me to go. The fact that I’m still doing this 35 years later is pretty amazing,” Donna Ruley, RDH, says with a smile. Years ago,  she wanted to be a teacher, but in the 1970s that wasn’t a “graduate and go” kind of option. Her father wanted her to go to college and be able to start working right away, so a neighbor suggested dental hygiene. “Now I get to teach people every day,” she says. “The majority of each appointment is spent on patient education.”

Mentoring Words of Advice

• Partner up Don’t just choose an employer, find a dentist who appreciates your profession.
• Don’t sit still Surround yourself with people who push you to be better.

Still Scaling

If Ms. Ruley had to point to one factor that has directly influenced her longevity in the profession—beyond the flexible hours and decent salary—it would be her camaraderie with her employer, Dr. Charles Vittitow. “He’s a lot of the reason why I’m still in dentistry,” she explains. “Working for him has helped me grow professionally and be the best I can be. He has high expectations and doesn’t spare any expense in helping me and others to achieve them.” Described as both  driven and dedicated to quality care, what Ms. Ruley appreciates most about Dr. Vittitow is that he appreciates the dental hygiene profession. “I feel like my opinion matters and he never questions my treatment choices,” Ms. Ruley continues. “When I talk to students in dental hygiene school, I tell them it’s important to find someone who respects them and respects the profession. With Charlie, he’s given me responsibility, shown me respect, and at the end of the day, I feel good about myself and the work that I’ve done.”

Dr. Vittitow isn’t all praise and no action—he quite literally put his money where his mouth is when Ms. Ruley came to him and suggested the office look into purchasing a digital radiography system. While hygienist purchasing influence is obvious (and expected) when related to products Of all her lessons learned, such as prophy paste, scalers, or fluoride varnish, big-ticket items such as digital radiography are often—perhaps too often—a decision left to the dentist alone. “I’d always pushed for computers in the operatory, so I knew the benefits of going digital.  At the time, I was in charge of the old radiograph equipment—which was dying—so I told him we either needed to buy a new one or make the jump to digital. He told me I was in charge,” she remembers. “I got to be the one who picked out the system. I called our local reps for different companies and brought them in, tested their products, and put a sensor in my own mouth. In the end, we went with DEXIS.”

Finding Community

Another influence shaping Ms. Ruley’s career is her involvement with the Kentucky Dental Hygienists’ Association (KDHA) and the American Dental Hygienists’ Association. When she first moved back to Louisville, she didn’t know any other dental hygienists. She would go to continuing education events and sit by herself. Then, at one KDHA meeting, someone mentioned that they needed a secretary—Ms. Ruley raised her hand and has been an officer at component and state levels for more than 15 years. Today, she is the KDHA president-elect and was responsible for planning the 2007 annual session. “This has been such a place of growth for me,” she says. “I’ve learned so much about myself as a professional and as a person. I never knew I loved event planning until I organized the annual session!”

Resolutions

Dr. Vittitow and KDHA are the two prongs that have helped Ms. Ruley set goals for 2008: To get a laser in the office, to increase membership in the association by mentoring students, and to work to get another hygienist on the state Board of Dentistry. “These two things have helped me to become the hygienist I am today,” she says, “and in turn, I want to help my practice and my association grow as well. I want to take them to the next level.” mh

Until now Louisville residents had to drive to Lexington to experience the benefits of advanced accredited cosmetic dentistry.  All that has changed.  Dr. Christian Hahn has become accredited with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry after passing a rigorous 5 year process that only 278 dentist in the entire world have achieved.  For more information on the accreditation process, visit www.AACD.com If you ever wanted to look younger, chew better, or just do not like your teeth, call or visit us here at The Center for Ideal Dentistry and experience the difference of world class dentistry!  Why select us for your dental needs?  Because experience matters! 

Previous consumer studies have proved that a beautiful smile will make you more attractive. But according to research conducted by Beall Research & Training of Chicago, a new smile will make you appear more intelligent, interesting, successful and wealthy to others as well.

Dr. Anne Beall, a social psychologist and market research professional carried out the independent study on behalf of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD). Pictures of eight individuals were shown to 528 Americans, a statistically valid cross section of the population. The respondents were asked to quickly judge the eight people as to how attractive, intelligent, happy, successful in their career, friendly, interesting, kind, wealthy, popular with the opposite sex and sensitive to other people they were.

Two sets of photos were created, with each set showing four individuals before undergoing cosmetic dentistry and four after treatment. Half the respondents viewed set A, the other half set B. The eight subjects viewed by respondents were evenly divided by gender. Two had mild improvements through cosmetic dentistry, two had moderate improvements and four had major improvements to their smiles, to give a wide range for respondents to view. None, however, had visibly rotten teeth, missing teeth or catastrophically bad dental health in the before shots. Respondents were not told that they were looking at dentistry, but were asked to make snap judgments rating each person for the ten characteristics, on a scale of one to ten, with “one” being “not at all,” and “ten” being “extremely.”

The results indicated that an attractive smile does have broad ranging benefits:

Characteristic                Average “Before” rating    Average “After” rating                Increase

Attractive                                             4.6                                5.9                                1.3
Intelligent                                            5.9                                6.5                                  .6
Happy                                                  6.2                                6.8                                  .4
Successful in their career                     5.8                                6.7                                  .9
Friendly                                               6.3                                6.8                                  .5
Interesting                                            5.4                                6.1                                  .7
Kind                                                     6.0                                6.4                                  .4
Wealthy                                                4.9                                5.9                                1.0
Popular with the opposite sex               5.0                                6.2                                1.2
Sensitive to other people                      5.6                                6.1                                  .5

While the change was most dramatic for attractive, popular with the opposite sex, wealthy and successful in their career, the change was statically significant in all areas.

“Based on a lot of interaction with happy patients, we were expecting this type of difference in attractiveness and popularity with the opposite sex,” said Dr. Christian W. Hahn, a Accredited AACD member.  “To have large gains in how successful, intelligent, interesting and wealthy patients appeared after cosmetic dentistry caught even us by surprise. We’ve been telling people that a beautiful smile was a great investment in their futures. Now we have independent evidence.”

The full survey results by Beall Research can be viewed on the AACD Web site at www.aacd.com.

About the AACD
AACD is the world’s largest organization of cosmetic dental professionals with more than 7,500 members in over 60 countries around the globe. The AACD fulfills its mission by offering superior educational opportunities; promoting and supporting a respected Accreditation credential; serving as a user-friendly and inviting forum for the creative exchange of knowledge and ideas; and providing accurate and useful information to the public and the profession. To learn more about cosmetic dentistry visit www.aacd.com.

Is Implant Dentistry for You?

Dental Implants replace missing teeth without the negative side effects of other procedures that would solve the same problem. Your natural teeth are not damaged, and once the implant is completed you will probably forget you even have it. The success rate is in the 90% range.

Why chose us to have your implant placed?

The Center for Ideal Dentistry focuses on providing you with the most comfortable, convenient and successful dental experience possible. You do not need to see multiple dentists and offices anymore to have an implant placed – we do it all. From the day you have your private consultation where we listen to you and answer all your questions, to the day you walk out of the office with your new teeth ready to eat and chew anything, we cater to you and all your needs. Furthermore, Dr. Vittitow and Dr. Hahn have a reputation for providing excellent comprehensive and esthetic dentistry. Our experience in managing complex cases and consistently obtaining beautiful results ensures that your implant will also be a success. By us placing the implant we have more control over where it is placed and how it is restored. The end result is a more pleasant, convenient, esthetic and longer lasting implant.

Dr. Vittitow and Dr. Hahn exclusively place ASTRA implants for their superior properties. Please visit their very informative site for more detailed information:

http://www.astratechusa.com

Please feel free to call our office anytime with questions or comments. There is so much information available regarding implants that it can get confusing. We would be happy to discuss your unique situation, just call and make a quick look appointment.

Lumineers are a brand of porcelain veneer that are made by Den-Mat. We all have seen the marketing campaign advertising the benefits of Lumineers. BUT, are they the solution for every patient? Of course not, Lumineers or other types of thin porcelain veneers work well for some patients but can have significant drawbacks for others. Only an experienced cosmetic dentist can evaluate your personal situation and determine if you would benefit from Lumineers.

The Good:
Lumineers are very strong, very thin, and sometimes can be placed over your teeth without drilling on them at all. Who would not prefer a cosmetic procedure that did not require drilling or anesthesia? That, of course, is the marketing campaign.

The Bad:
Cosmetic dentistry is not a slam-dunk. Looking good is only half the equation. Your teeth need to function properly and the gum tissue has to be healthy around your teeth. Imagine this: You go to the shoe store and want to buy these new sneakers that everybody wants. So, instead of taking off your old shoes you pick a size of sneakers that fits over your old shoes so that you do not have to remove your current ones. What would that feel like? What would that look like? This is often the scenario with Lumineers. Unless you have very small teeth with lots of spaces around them, you are essentially making the tooth larger than it was supposed to be. That just is not natural. The gum tissue gets irritated, the teeth become fatter, and cleaning your teeth becomes much more difficult. If you have to drill on the teeth to make Lumineers fit, then you are essentially placing what we call a conservative veneer, which can be made out of numerous types of materials.

The Ugly:
Cosmetic dentistry is supposed to make you look and feel good. How many people like the look of teeth that are too fat, too opaque, and overall just unnatural looking? I do not know very many myself. Just like the shoe example above, which also would look very strange, putting anything on top of natural looking teeth will look fat and fake. If your tooth is very dark, and the veneer/laminate is very thin, then it will essentially have to be extremely opaque to block out the dark color – like white out. That does not look natural! It is my personal opinion, and that of many other advanced cosmetic dentists, that to achieve a natural looking beautiful smile you have to design the smile so that the teeth are the ideal proportions to your face and fit on your teeth as if you were born with them. That is mostly impossible with Lumineers.

Do Lumineers have a place in cosmetic dentistry? They most certainly do. The idea behind Lumineers is wonderful, and when used appropriately they can be a great service to the patient. Unfortunately very few patients actually fit that narrow critera. Here at The Center for Ideal Dentistry we place many types of veneers, each designed to give you the best possible smile in the most conservative way. Properly designed veneers are inherently conservative, often only about half a millimeter thick. That is very thin, about the thickness of you finger nail. To achieve the most esthetic and healthy result it is necessary to adjust the tooth minimally so that the outcome looks great, feels great, and last a very long time. How does the dentist know what type of veneer to use? How does the dentist know how much tooth needs to be removed and where? How does the dentist know when he/she can use Lumineers? All these questions are a matter of experience and education! Nobody in Louisville has more experience or credentials for cosmetic dentistry than Dr. Vittitow and Dr. Hahn.

If you want to know if you are a candidate for Lumineers or other highly conservative types of veneers, please call The Center for Ideal Dentistry and let us show you what advanced cosmetic dentistry can do for you without negatively affecting your smile or health.