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A devotion to dental DHAA Life Member Joan James fondly recalls her dental hygiene journey – from the early days of the industry in Australia to some of the more disappointing decisions being made by the authorities
M
y dental hygiene journey started in small-town USA. My father was a dentist in Nebraska, and I assisted him after school and during school vacations. However, I was not aware of the profession of dental hygiene until I went to the University of Nebraska in 1970 (majoring in interior design) and found part time work assisting in the student health centre dental clinic. The dentists in the clinic encouraged me to apply to the four year bachelor’s degree program in dental hygiene. I was accepted into the program after doing a year of prerequisite study (after two years in my original program) while working full-time in the health clinic as a nurse’s aide. All dental hygiene subjects and clinical practice were delivered at the University of Nebraska Dental School. In the clinic we wore white (nursestyle) caps and white pant uniforms, no masks, gloves or eye protection. Infection control has come a long way since then! Upon graduation in 1975, I was employed by a dentist in Billings, Montana but soon returned to Nebraska to practice. I moved to Brisbane in
July 1977 with my future husband, an Australian, whom I had met while he was teaching orthodontics at the University of Nebraska Dental School. Dental hygiene practice was not legally allowed in Queensland in 1977 – the Dental Act allowed only dentists to practice intra-orally. I found employment as a dental assistant and was fortunate enough to work chairside with a periodontist (and a good friend), which kept me up-to-date with current trends in preventive dentistry. During that time, South Australia offered a dental hygiene course and, along with SA, other states were starting to allow the practice of dental hygiene. In 1987 the Queensland Dental Act was changed to allow qualified dental hygienists to 'list' with the Dental Board of Queensland to practice dental hygiene. Overseas-trained hygienists were required to sit a proficiency exam. The written exam was delivered in Brisbane in the early years, but the clinical exam was given in Adelaide at the Gilles Plains Dental Clinic. The Adelaide exam component was challenging and extremely unpleasant— as experienced by many other overseas-trained hygienists.
Upon completion of that exam, I felt fortunate to be able to return to the familiar periodontal practice, employed as a dental hygienist. I practiced there for 21 years, leaving private clinical practice in 2011. During that time, I was occasionally involved in the clinical assessment of students in the Academic Upgrade Program at the University of Queensland (UQ) School of Dentistry. The program (subsidised by Queensland Health, available from 1998-2005)
“ At the end of my professional life, I was an advisor with Dental Protection Limited, an indemnity insurance provider. That was very rewarding work in that esteemed organisation, and I would have relished it had I been 10 years younger!”
