April is an important month in our profession and one that we should all feel very proud of being a part of!

Not only is April Oral Health Month, but it is also Oral Cancer Awareness month. We kicked off the month on Friday, April 1st by inviting Jo-Anne Jones, RDH as our guest for The RDH View. Jo-Anne is an advocate for oral cancer screening. She has her own personal story and loss of a dear family member who passed away due to Oral Cancer at a very young age leaving behind a loving husband and two young children. Jo-Anne invited Dr. Parul Dua Makkar, who is a dentist practicing in Long Island, New York and who's brother, Manu, also a dentist from Calgary, Alberta, passed away from Oral Cancer at the very young age of 34.

Jo-Anne has offered a very resourceful handout along with extra resources to help your practice implement an Oral Cancer Screening Protocol. This is something you can fully implement and share with your clients and patients and feel very proud for being 'that' office that is very thorough with their screening and early detection. We own this area and must share the importance of at least an annual Oral Cancer Screening (in office) as well as provide tips on how clients can self-assess at home. Early detection is key.

If you weren't able to join us live on Friday, please click here to access the general rdhu portal. If you have your own personal portal, please email us and we will upload into your portal. If you are a Dental Hygiene Quarterly annual subscriber, you will find this session automatically uploaded in your portal along with a short quiz and certificate.

Yesterday, April 4th, was the start of National Dental Hygienists Week(TM) and we are seeing many shades of purple being shared through social media and across the country in celebration!

We are so fortunate to be in a profession that has such a direct impact on the health of not only our clients in our practice, but global health overall. We can share the importance of regular check-ups, dental hygiene visits and the oral systemic connection to essentially save lives.

Kudos to all of you for being a dental hygienist and for being a part of rdhu where we continue to strive to learn and grow in a profession we all love so much.

Thank you for reading and have a great week ahead. Please take a look below for what is coming up! Check out the new Career Opportunity Section toward the bottom!

Kindest regards,

Kathleen