It won’t take long after you meet Sarah to realize her warmth and compassion.  She says she "really loves what she does, and glad she chose this route (or it chose her)”!  Sarah’s work is in non-traditional settings with Head Start and special needs children.  Sarah is a Chippewa Falls native and now resides in Holcombe.  The people in Western Wisconsin recognize how lucky we are to have her here.  Here is her story.

Dental Hygiene Education: Sarah graduated from Chippewa Valley Technical College in 1999. She regularly participates in continuing education and seeks classes on special needs patients or pediatric dentistry.

Work:  Sarah calls herself a public health dental hygienist and an oral health educator.  She works in 25 Head Start programs through Western Dairyland.  Her busy 45+ hours per week take her to a variety of settings.  The settings may be traditional head start classrooms, home based or Head Start partner programs.  When Sarah walks into a partner program facility, she doesn’t know which kids are with Head Start.  Once identified, all of the children signed up for her program receive education, examinations, fluoride varnish and a referral when in need of dental care.  A letter is sent home as well as to the health services assistant for the program who follows up to make sure care is received. 

Much to her delight, Sarah also participates in parent conferences to discuss the oral health of the child with their parent one on one and presents to a group of parents at parent meetings on various oral health topics.

Sarah is also the Western Regional Children and Youth with Special Healthcare Needs (CYSHCN) oral health care coordinator.  Ten percent of the children in a head start program must have special needs.  She partners with Karen Eslinger at Marshfield Clinic in Chippewa Falls.

Sarah recently finished working on a unique grant with Community Health Partnership where she and CVTC dental hygiene students would go into the homes of adults with developmental disabilities and do an oral health assessment and come up with an oral health care plan.   The plan was then discussed with the individual and the personal care worker and the tools to carry out the plan were also given to the individual.