Meet Your IDHA President

Lori McNamara

Lori is a seasoned hygienist with 40 years of experience in several areas of dentistry; from private practice and public health, to education and sales, Lori’s diverse background helps her to relate to all the issues that her colleagues may encounter.  

Lori’s passion is Access to Care. Working in public health for most of her career led her to see just how strong this need really is. She shared a story that still brings a tear to her eye to this day:

While working at the DuPage County Health Department, she encountered a migrant family from southeast Asia. They had a 3-year-old daughter who was born and raised in a refugee camp. She was a sweetheart of a child, petite, smiling, and oh, so trusting. Underneath her sweet disposition was an underlying health issue. She had decay on every single tooth. EVERY. SINGLE. TOOTH. The decay was so bad that the 4 maxillary anterior teeth were already abscessed. Can you even imagine all that this poor child must have been through up until this point in her life?  

Lori and the team at DCHD were trying to find a place that offered hospitalization dentistry for this child, but the limited options were just not available in the timeframe that would help this child. The minimum waiting list was over 6 months, and because this child’s needs were urgent, time was of the essence.  Lori assisted one of the staff dentists, and together they worked diligently and quickly to take care of this child’s dental needs to the best of their ability. It was not easy, but they were able to get the worst teeth extracted, and placed glass ionomer restorations into the remaining teeth.  

While treatment modalities have improved somewhat with time, the issue of access to care is a problem that persists to this day. Lori is here to do what she can to not only help guide the way when it comes to access to care, but to help empower hygienists to work to the extent of our licenses and better serve the communities that we represent. Lori is a very approachable leader and encourages anyone who has any questions or would like to take a more active role in IDHA to please reach out!

Please take a moment to read a message from our President below!

Licensure Portability

Have you thought about the possibility of moving to another state?

The horror stories we all hear about obtaining the state license is often a deterrent. 

IDHA is putting forward a state bill for Illinois to be part of the Dental/Dental Hygienist Licensure Compact. There are 4 states already part of the compact, and others will be joining. (Iowa, Washington State, Tennessee, Wisconsin). For more information regarding the compact, go to IDHA.org to see a recording of the most recent presentation regarding the compact, or go to ddh.org for more information.

WE NEED YOU to reach out to your state legislators regarding these bills. Visiting their office, phone calls or emails all are effective ways of reaching out.

Only by hearing from their voting constituents will the message get across that we want this bill to pass in Illinois. If Illinois is not part of the compact, we will continue to have to jump through the hoops of state license requirements for other states.

The house bill is HB4579

The senate bill is SB2982

You can find your state legislator at elections.il.gov

Hosted by West Suburban/Fox Valley Component

The Annual

Celebration of Learning

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

6 PM - 8 PM

1.5 CEUs

College of DuPage Dental Hygiene Program

425 Fawell Blvd.

Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

Table Clinics given by the graduating Dental Hygiene Students of College of DuPage

IDHA and OnDiem Join Forces!

IDHA and OnDiem announced their partnership with a meet and greet at Chicago Midwinter Convention.

Leadership members were at the OnDiem booth at Midwinter on Friday afternoon, meeting RDHs, answering questions, and distributing Starbucks gift cards. It was great to see everyone that stopped by!

Lake/McHenry Hosts a Great Event

On March 8^th, the Lake/McHenry component hosted Paul G. Luepke, D.D.S., M.S. FACD for an informative all day CE event . Attendees learned about Creating an Optimal Smile in the Morning, and Personal Development in the afternoon. Thank you, Lake/McHenry Component for having such a fun event!

2024 Annual Conference registration is now open!

Let’s get competitive!

Hey there, y'all! Get ready to jazz it up with some Crescent City charm! We're kicking off the dental shindig of the year starting Wednesday, February 15, 2024! It's a showdown like no other as each state gears up to strut their stuff and rack up those registrations for the ADHA24 Annual Conference.

Picture this: the thrill of the chase, the buzz of the competition, all set against the backdrop of New Orleans' vibrant culture! And here's the cherry on top: the state with the sassiest, spunkiest crew, boasting the highest percentage of registered members, will score not just one or two, but a whopping FIVE passes to ADHA25 on the sunny shores of Long Beach, CA! The state competition deadline is Friday, July 12.

Lets go Illinois!!

Cradle to Grave: Oral Pathology Through the Life Span

Sherri M. Lukes, RDH, MS, FAADH

March 26, 2024

06:00pm CST

3737 West 127th Street, Alsip, IL

FREE 1.5CE

This course is an overview of oral pathologic conditions outlined according to those affecting children/adolescents, adults and geriatric clients. It includes both common and uncommon conditions presented in an engaging format. Many of the images and cases presented are from Ms. Lukes’ own personal collection of lesion images accumulated over 43 years as a dental hygienist, a 28-year teaching career and 22 years of mission work. Etiology, clinical appearance, and treatment options are included for each lesion/ condition. Comparison images for inclusion in the differential diagnosis will also be presented and discussed. This course can serve as an excellent update for seasoned hygienists/dentists or a relevant review for new graduates entering the field.

Integrating Behavioral Health Strategies within Oral Health Visits

Hosted by IPHCA

March 26, 2024

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. 

Location: Webinar

1 CE

This presentation focuses on the discussion of integrating behavioral health strategies for patients of all ages who are showing signs of behavioral health challenges within their oral health care visit. The goal is to provide dental providers with a few tools and different perspective in giving patients completing their oral health care visit with more support. 

Objectives:

• Identifying some signs patients are experiencing leads to behavioral health challenges.
• Understanding ways of communicating concerns with patients regarding behavioral

health. 

• Learn different strategies to help support patients showing behavioral health challenges. 

Continuing education is made possible through the Moses/Weitzman Health System, Inc. and its Weitzman Institute. In support of improving patient care, this activity was planned and implemented by the Illinois Primary Health Care Association and Moses/Weitzman Health System, Inc./Weitzman Institute and s jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. Additional CE credits are available for dentists, physician assistants/associates, psychologists, and social workers. 

New Job Board up on IDHA.NET

Have a job to post? Or are looking for work? Head over to the new job board on our website.

Attention All PHDH

Thank you so much to all the newly certified PHDHs that took advantage of the Delta Dental Grant we had for 2023. There were 75 dental hygienists that became PHDHs with the grant!! Great job to Laura Scully, Laura Baus, Tomika Johnson-Flowers for all your hard work answering questions, checking approved classes, and registration of participants. Thank you to Laura Scully, Lori Drummer and Lori McNamara for lecturing for the review for certification. Illinois now has over 200 Public Health Dental Hygienists. 

Are you considering getting your PHDH Certification? The next review and certification will be on Saturday, June 8, 2024. Look at the PHDH section on the IDHA website to see what is required for certification, and start getting your requirements completed.