Before dental practices and DSOs can see some relief from workforce shortages, they should challenge themselves to do more to make dental hygienists feel satisfied with their careers, according to Aspen Dental’s new vice president of hygiene operations.
Kimberly (Cameron) Jones was appointed to the role earlier this month after 13 years with the Chicago-based DSO. She has 15 years of experience working in dental hygiene.
Ms. Jones recently spoke with Becker's to discuss her new role, the challenges facing dental hygienists and how dental organizations can best support them.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What goals do you have for yourself in your new role?
Kimberly (Cameron) Jones: One of the biggest goals I have is to debunk the common misconceptions about DSOs. I personally believe Aspen is such an amazing place to work. I've been here over 13 years myself and then we have several other hygienists who have been here just as long if not even longer. We offer competitive pay, flexible schedules, benefits, tons of free [continuing education], but also just constant development of our clinicians and it's been such a great experience for me. It's become a home truly and the people have become my family. So, I would just love others to get to experience that as well.
Q: What are some of the best ways for dental practices and DSOs to support dental hygienists today?
KJ: I think one of the most underrated ways offices and DSOs can support hygienists is keeping them up to date on changes in dentistry. I don't think that’s top of mind for many hygienists. More often than not, they're on their own for that. Whether it's a recent change in guidelines or brand new technology that's all the craze or new instruments, they have to seek that out themselves, take a CE course or hope it shows up on their social media feed to learn about it. This is something Aspen does really well. We keep our providers educated; we keep them informed on everything to empower them to deliver the best possible care to patients, and grow their skill sets. We also put the best technology in their hands. For example, we have the 3D scanners and we have the voice-activated periodontal charting. Because we do this, it gives hygienists the confidence they need to ultimately deliver the best care to our patients.
Q: When do you think the dental industry can expect to see some relief from hiring challenges with dental hygienists?
KJ: I feel in our experience so far, at least since 2020, there's a little reprieve. We're starting to see that. We're definitely not where we want it to be, but in my opinion, until we really meet these clinicians where they're at when it comes to their wants or asks — within reason, of course — we're going to continue to see the struggle. I work really closely with our talent acquisition team and we're hearing a lot about flexible schedules. They want to be able to have that balance that works for their individual family. Obviously, everybody wants a fair wage. Some may be wanting benefits. Honestly, what we hear the most is they're wanting to feel valued. They want to be a partner to the doctor more and feel appreciated in the practice. So as we're learning these things, we have worked very diligently in close partnership with our talent acquisition team to meet these hygienists where they're at and deliver these things that they're asking for. Ultimately, we want them to have a place they love to come to for work and feel appreciated of course.
Q: Have you seen more dental hygienists temping since the pandemic started?
KJ: To me, it definitely seems like the industry is moving in that direction. So, again, if we don't meet them with these flexible schedules, then temping may be the new norm and I don't think that's what any business owner wants. We want to have our own people, so that's why we're definitely moving to more flexibility with schedules.
When you're hiring a temp, it's a higher wage because you're paying a temp fee plus the going hourly rate for that hygienist. A lot of the temps are fabulous. It's not knocking the actual individual clinician, [but] they're not familiar with the software or the flow of the office. It's like cooking in someone else's kitchen. You're having to search for things. You don't have the flow and sometimes it might be a little stressful and patients can feel that too.
Q: What has been the biggest takeaway from your 15 years in dental hygiene?
KJ: I would say be open to learning. What I learned, and thankfully I learned this a little earlier on, is I can learn something from every single person I come into contact with. My role is all over the organization. I've had several roles at Aspen, and I did private practice before this. It didn't matter if the clinician was right out of school, was a student in school or had one year of experience or 30 years of experience. It didn't matter if it was one of my leaders that was mentoring me. I could have been teaching a CE course and still learning or participating in one, or even simply reading an article. I knew I could learn something. So what I would say [is] be open to that and seek out the knowledge, soak it up. What we do know is healthcare is always changing, especially the field of dentistry. So we want to make sure we as clinicians and leaders, we grow and evolve along with it.