Spring Hatfield, RDH, BSPH
Spring Hayes Hatfield, RDH, BSPH, is a graduate of Florida State College at Jacksonville and practices clinically in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. She is Dental Hygiene Board Certified in Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama. She is a member of the American Dental Hygiene Association. Spring is on the Advisory Board at Today’s RDH and holds the position of Associate Editor. Her passion is elevating the dental hygiene profession through science and education as well as clinical excellence. In her free time, she loves traveling, reading, and spending time with her husband, children and the animals at her useless animal farm. She can be reached via email at Spring@todaysrdh.com.
Informed Consent Review: How Hygienists Can Assist Patients in Making Informed Decisions
Informed consent is an important aspect of research, medicine, and dentistry, as well as the patient's right to autonomy. While a patient's right to autonomy can become blurred in the face of certain ethical decisions, it should never be ignored outright.
Medicine and medical research have a past that haunts me since early research rarely, if ever, considered patients' autonomy....
An Open Letter to Patients about Your Dental Insurance
Dear patients with dental insurance,
There is no easy way to say this. So I'll just be straight with you. Your insurance company is not in the business of improving or maintaining your oral health. They are in the business of making money. Though there is a running joke about how much dental care costs and how dentists are making...
QUIZ: Test Your Historical Women in Dentistry Knowledge
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We Don’t Need a Dental Hygiene Union: Know Your Rights as Employees
A statement I've heard from multiple hygienists across the country is that dental hygienists need a union. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen for multiple reasons, the biggest being that dentists regulate the dental hygiene profession. It is to their benefit not to allow us to create a union.
The idea of a dental hygiene union is a pipe dream....
Curiosity Killed the Plaque Ep. 8: Utilizing Critical Thinking Skills in Dentistry
In this episode of Curiosity Killed the Plaque, Spring Hatfield, RDH, BSPH, discusses the importance of utilizing critical thinking skills in dentistry.
Give it a watch, and make sure to subscribe to the Today’s RDH Dental Hygiene podcast on your favorite podcasting app or by going to https://anchor.fm/todaysrdh.
QUIZ: Test Your Burning Mouth Syndrome Knowledge
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Listen to the Today's RDH Dental Hygiene Podcast Below:
Mission-Ready: Military Hygienist Serves Her Country and Those Who Serve
Many dental hygienists may overlook multiple aspects of the profession, such as those who serve in the military. During dental hygiene school, one of our rotations was at a military base, and I found it very interesting to meet and discuss dental care in the military with the hygienist who served that base and our country.
In this article, I...
Open House: Alicia Morris Helps Children with Autism Feel Comfortable with Hygiene Appointments
So many dental hygienists are trailblazers who never get the recognition they deserve. It seems the same key opinion leaders receive the awards distributed in the dental hygiene community, which often leaves hygienists who are doing great work unrecognized. I am honored to write this article to spotlight a dental hygienist who goes above and beyond to serve a...
Dissecting the Research: Elusive Causes of Black Line Stain and Hygiene Management
Black stain is “an external dental discoloration of bacterial origin, considered a special form of dental plaque.”1 The discoloration is characterized as a “dark line, or an incomplete coalescence of dark dots localized on the cervical third of the tooth.”2
Black line stain can be difficult to manage for both patients and dental professionals alike. Many patients who experience black...
Curiosity Killed the Plaque Ep. 7: Checking Your State’s Dental Practice Act
In this episode of Curiosity Killed the Plaque, Spring Hatfield, RDH, BSPH, discusses the importance of checking your state's Dental Practice Act, how often it should be checked, and what can be found within it.
Give it a watch, and make sure to subscribe to the Today’s RDH Dental Hygiene podcast on your favorite podcasting app or by going to...
QUIZ: Test Your Periodontium Knowledge
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Research History of Traumatic Occlusion and Why More Research is Needed
An ongoing debate and lack of clear evidence have left the dental profession with unanswered questions about the role of traumatic occlusion in multiple oral conditions. Is it a contributing factor? How should it be managed? What is the proper protocol, and how do we clearly identify it?
So many questions come to mind, and I hope to answer them...
Curiosity Killed the Plaque Ep. 6: CDT Codes for Dental Hygienists to Implement
In this episode of Curiosity Killed the Plaque, Spring Hatfield, RDH, BSPH, discusses CDT codes for dental hygienists to implement.
Give it a watch, and make sure to subscribe to the Today’s RDH Dental Hygiene podcast on your favorite podcasting app or by going to https://anchor.fm/todaysrdh.
QUIZ: Test Your Anxiety and Pain Control Knowledge to Help Patients
Are you in need of CE credits? If so, check out our peer-reviewed, self-study CE courses here.
Now Check Out the Self-Study, Peer-Reviewed CE Courses from Today's RDH!
Listen to the Today's RDH Dental Hygiene Podcast Below:
Dental Board Exams: The Ethical Conflicts of Using Live Dental Patients
Are you aware that dentistry is the only area of health care that requires a live board patent exam for licensure? In no other area of health care is this an acceptable practice.1 Historically, we have been using live patients since the early 1900s.2 The consistent use of live patients for so many years has made shifting away from...
Curiosity Killed the Plaque Ep. 5: Current Protocols in Root Planing, Subgingival Irrigation, and FMD
In this episode of Curiosity Killed the Plaque, Spring Hatfield, RDH, BSPH, discusses current protocols in root planing, subgingival irrigation, and full mouth debridement.
Give it a watch, and make sure to subscribe to the Today’s RDH Dental Hygiene podcast on your favorite podcasting app or by going to https://anchor.fm/todaysrdh.
QUIZ: Test Your Dental Hygiene Profession Knowledge
Are you in need of CE credits? If so, check out our peer-reviewed, self-study CE courses here.
Now Check Out the Self-Study, Peer-Reviewed CE Courses from Today's RDH!
Listen to the Today's RDH Dental Hygiene Podcast Below:
Dental Practice Acts: How Often Should Dental Hygienists Review Them?
Questions abound on social media regarding what is allowed to occur in the dental office, ranging from "Can assistants polish?" to "When the dentist is out of the office, can hygienists see patients who have not had an exam in 12 months? "Unfortunately, there is not one right answer. The answer depends on the state in which the situation...
Critical Thinking: How Dental Professionals Can Reboot Thought Patterns
Carl Sagan once said, "The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what is true."
Critical thinking does not come naturally; it takes some level of...
Oral Cancer: HPV-related Small Cell Carcinoma of the Oropharynx
HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer is becoming more widely discussed in literature and dental offices. Over the past 30 years, we have learned more about HPV’s role in oropharyngeal cancer. Currently, oropharyngeal cancer is the most common HPV-related cancer in the United States.1
Most of the oropharyngeal cancer caused by HPV are squamous cell carcinomas. However, there are multiple phenotypes that are...