Dental Hygienists as Health Coaches: Benefits for Patients and Practices

Course Description:

This webinar will provide a brief overview of the rising epidemic of obesity and chronic disease and its impact on oral and systemic health, and the critical role Dental Hygienists can play in helping their patients address these concerns.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and demonstrate how to ask life-changing questions to awaken a patient’s intrinsic motivation to change and help them clarify and write down their personal health goals.
• Recognize the importance of a Personal Health Journal and put pen to paper using SMART goals.
• Identify the difference between problem-solving and preventive orientation and the creative process: the generative process of creating optimal health and well-being.
• Recognize the power of personal choice, how to create new healthy habits, and the importance of focusing on what we want to make vs. what we don’t want.

Speaker Bios:

Erin Howlett has worked in dentistry for over 30 years as a dental hygienist, implant treatment coordinator, and speaker, and now with a focus on Oral Systemic health  – wellness and healthy lifestyle coaching. With a continuing passion for working towards creating optimal oral and overall health outcomes, she’s grateful for the opportunity to study oral systemic health with Dr. Doug Thompson. She is now the Operations Manager for Wellness Dentistry Network. She’s also a proud American Academy of Oral Systemic Health and ADHA member.

Mark Nelson is a retired cardiologist who transitioned from treating and managing disease to empowering and creating health and well-being for himself, his patients, and many others. As an Optimal Health Practitioner, his Health Coach COPE Certification is in partnership with the Bradley McDonald Center for Obesity Prevention and Education, Villanova College and Nursing. He is an instructor who teaches our Habits of Health curriculum to fellow Health Coaches and others who want to study and understand habits of health and well-being.

As an independent certified OPTAVIA coach, Dr. Nelson empowers people to create healthier lifestyles that enable them to reduce disease burden and reduce or eliminate medications. He coaches clients in the six core health habits, including healthy nutrition & hydration, nutritional and predictable weight loss, therapeutic movement, recuperative sleep, mindfulness & stress reduction, and creating healthy surroundings. Helping clients understand the importance of a healthy mindset is critical for creating lifelong health. A healthy mind is emotionally intelligent with personal and social self-awareness rooted in mindfulness. Before becoming a Health Coach, Mark was a Board Certified Cardiologist who practiced in Albany, N.Y. He received his baccalaureate degree from New York University, his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University Medical School, and his Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University. In addition to years of clinical work, Mark worked for the Centers for Disease Control and did occupational health and safety work for the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union. Mark served on the Planning Committee of the New York State American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Women and Heart Disease Physician Education Initiative.

Mark has focused on disease prevention, health creation, and optimal health education for many years and has given numerous presentations (many CME accredited) to students, teachers, school nurses, health care professionals, patients, and community groups on preventing, treating and reversing cardiovascular disease, heart-healthy nutrition, preventing and reversing Type 2 Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes and preventing and reversing overweight and obesity. He also consulted for the Healthy Heart 4 Kids website, answering student questions about heart and heart disease. He authored an article for the New York State Academy of Family Physicians Family Doctor Summer 2016 issue entitled "Moving Medicine into the Third Era: Creating Optimal Health and Well-Being."

As an Optimal Health Practitioner and business coach, Mark works with healthcare professionals and entities, helping them create health and well-being for healthcare professionals, patients, staff, employees, and their communities. Mark is an avid sports enthusiast who enjoys swimming, biking, running, skiing, snowboarding, yoga, martial arts, and kettlebell training. He lives in Troy with his wife, Margaret, also a Health and Business Coach with OPTAVIA. Mark and Margaret have a son, Jake, and a daughter, Molly.

Doug Thompson began his dental career at age eighteen, working as an in-house laboratory technician. He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in 1996 and then completed a one-year hospital-based V.A. Residency in 1997. Dr. Thompson has completed hundreds of hours of continuing education at the Kois Center in Seattle, Washington. In 2015, he was offered and accepted a part-time faculty position teaching about personalized periodontal medicine. In 2016, he added the wellness dentistry topic to his teaching role.

In addition to his dental training, Dr. Thompson is pursuing a fellowship in anti-aging and regenerative medicine through the American Academy of Anti-Aging, Regenerative, and Functional Medicine. He has published professionally, and in 2015, Dr. Thompson founded the Wellness Dentistry Network, a community of dentists with a keen awareness of how oral conditions affect whole-body health.