April Marie Lavoie, RDH, BSDH, MPP, MA, Ph.D

As dental hygienists, we have the opportunity to spend an estimated 45 to 60 minutes with our patients at each appointment. Performing intraoral and extraoral examinations offers us the ability to be dental healthcare detectives; we can sometimes identify patient’s potential health issues before the patients recognize them themselves. I can remember an occasion when a patient asked me about...

Personally, growing up bilingual and attending school in educational spaces that emphasized English-only curriculum was challenging. Language is more than just a group of words necessary to express one’s thoughts and feelings. Language is the essence of one’s personal identity, the very fabric that makes each of us who we are. I have spent many years researching language and...