News about Dental Hygiene

A leadership contingent from Penn State DuBois sweepingly explored Penn College’s main campus on Tuesday, stopping by … walking by … and being greatly impressed by the variety of academic areas and services that give students a full collegiate experience and develop their workforce readiness. Making the visit from the commonwealth campus, about 110 miles west of Williamsport, were: Jungwoo Ryoo, chancellor and chief academic officer; Alex Gasbarre, chief executive officer of Gasbarre Products Inc., a DuBois-based supplier to the powder metallurgy, particulate materials and thermal processing industries; John P. Brennan, director of continuing and community education; and Bradley W. Lashinsky, program director, North Central PA LaunchBox at the DuBois campus.

“Anytime we can learn from one another, and find mutually beneficial opportunities for our students and industry, is a good day,” said President Michael J. Reed, who met Ryoo several weeks ago and bolstered that connection during Tuesday’s visit. “There is much to discuss about our common goals – and ways in which to achieve them – and we welcome the ongoing collaboration.”

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The Penn College student chapter of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (SADHA) sponsored a “Pink Out” on Wednesday in the college’s Dental Hygiene Clinic, in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

All of the dental hygiene program’s students and faculty were encouraged to wear pink gowns and masks in the clinic.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, other than skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. Men also get breast cancer, but it is not very common (about 1% of cases diagnosed in the U.S.), according to the CDC.

Photos by Shawn A. Kiser, director of dental hygiene

Free dental care – including oral screenings, sealants and education – is available to children ages 7 to 15 on Saturday, Nov. 5, in the Pennsylvania College of Technology Dental Hygiene Clinic.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon. The college’s Dental Hygiene Clinic is on the second floor in the west wing of the Advanced Technology & Health Sciences Center.

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Students pursuing associate degrees in health care majors have the opportunity to concurrently enroll in bachelor’s degree coursework in one of three degree-completion majors at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Penn College’s new concurrent enrollment program allows students in health care-related majors at Penn College or other accredited institutions to gain a head start toward a bachelor’s completion degree by taking up to two online courses (six credits) per semester during their last year of study toward an associate degree.

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Announcement of Penn College’s Nov. 5 “Sealant Saturday” occasioned a recent visit from WNEP’s Chris Keating, whose news segment hit the airwaves late last week. The Newswatch 16 reporter interviewed Ninoshka M. Rivera, of Lebanon, and Erica N. Wenrich, of Enola – second-year dental hygiene students – and instructor Jill M. Hicks about the event, which provides a variety of free dental services to children ages 7 to 15.

Students learned about Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Spring 2023 Global Experience itinerary during a recent drop-in session at The LEAP Center, a valuable resource on the first floor of the Davie Jane Gilmour Center, offering a convenient forum in which to explore a half-dozen attractive travel options.

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A second week of Penn College’s My Tomorrow day camp (July 12-15) led middle-school students down more time-tested roads to career success and personal fulfillment. The program – again sponsored by the Soars Family – followed the template of the first: offering sixth through eighth graders an enviable palette of hands-on options, from emergency preparedness and health sciences to concrete, aviation and electrical.

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“I played a few different sports, but this is the only one that I’ve actually stuck with,” says Olivia Hemstock, a since-graduated member of the Penn College softball team, in a newly posted Wildcat Spotlight video. Hemstock crossed the Community Arts Center stage in mid-May to claim her associate degree in dental hygiene, the culmination of a college experience that included a first-ever North Eastern Athletic Conference championship in 2021. “Sticking with it” could well be her motto, as persistence and friendship turned self-doubt into self-confidence. “Before I got here, I was like, ‘I don’t think I can do this. I don’t know how to balance both sports and dental hygiene,'” she says. “Once I met amazing people on the team – and really enjoyed my major, as tough as it was – you figure it out.” Hemstock has passed all of her board exams and is job-shadowing co-workers at the North Branford Dental Group in her Connecticut hometown; she will begin work as a full-time hygienist there once her license is received.

On April 7, Penn College’s second-year dental hygiene students – led by Bridget E. Motel, instructor of dental hygiene, and Grace G. Hicks, clinical director of dental hygiene – provided 39 oral cancer screenings for members of the college community.

The screenings, offered on campus during Oral Cancer Awareness Month, are done to identify mouth cancer early, before there are symptoms.

According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, about 54,000 people in the U.S. will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer in 2022. For more than a decade, there has been an annual increase in the rate of occurrence of oral and oropharyngeal cancers.

“While some think this is a rare cancer, mouth cancers will be newly diagnosed in about 145 new individuals each day in the U.S. alone, and a person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day,” the foundation states.
Photos by Bridget E. Motel

Aspen Dental Management Inc. is partnering with Pennsylvania College of Technology to establish a new scholarship that provides two $1,000 awards annually to students in the dental hygiene associate degree major.

The Aspen Dental Scholarship will provide one award each to a student in the first and second years of the program.

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“If a career in a health care setting is your calling, your path to a thriving career starts right here at Penn College,” says dental hygiene student Dacia James, who leads a virtual tour of the School of Nursing & Health Sciences. The Williamsport resident (aided by Ally K. Swartz, a paramedic technician major from Bellefonte, and Alexia O. Zelenevskaya, a dental hygiene student from Ephrata) guides viewers through an 11-minute exploration of paramedic, physician assistant, dental hygiene, nursing, physical therapist assistant, surgical technology, radiography and applied health studies, as well as the school’s newest majors: health science and allied health.

Retired faculty member Darla B. Logue has established a scholarship for first-generation college students at Pennsylvania College of Technology in honor of retiring President Davie Jane Gilmour.

The James E. and Darla B. Logue Scholarship also honors Darla Logue’s late husband, who taught for 49 years – 39 of them at Penn College – and was the recipient of the institution’s highest teaching honor: the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology bestowed two Distinguished Teaching Awards on faculty during an event held on main campus.

Mark E. Sones, instructor of diesel equipment technology, was presented with the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award, the highest honor accorded to a faculty member at the college.

Bridget E. Motel, instructor of dental hygiene, received an Excellence in Teaching Award.

Both presentations were made during an Employee Recognition Week event held in Bardo Gymnasium and livestreamed across campus.

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The capstone project of a Fall 2020 Pennsylvania College of Technology graduate – on COVID-19 and dental care – has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Dental Hygiene and is being offered as a continuing education opportunity by the American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Breanna J. Connell, of Easton, received her bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene in December. Her paper – and the related continuing education offering – is titled “COVID-19 and Oral Maintenance.”

“My motivation for this research was to create a one-of-a-kind literature review that discussed a topic that was fresh and new. At the beginning of the pandemic, I found that my coworkers and I did not know proper COVID-19 related protocols,” said Connell, who has been a registered dental hygienist since 2015. “As the protocols were constantly changing, I found the topic to be extremely interesting and knew that researching this topic could improve my career as a dental hygienist.”

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With her keen knowledge of the ties between oral and overall health, recent Pennsylvania College of Technology graduate Lori Dietz hopes to help people near and far.

Here in Pennsylvania, the registered dental hygienist, who earned her bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene from Penn College in December, already has a full plate educating and caring for others as a part-time, private-practice dental hygienist and an adjunct clinical instructor for first- and second-year dental hygiene students at Northampton Community College.

Recently, as part of her Penn College senior capstone project, Dietz, of Pen Argyl, educated peers in the dental profession on the role of a dental team in helping patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

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