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    • Editor S Note Photo 5d8248c80b2fd
    1. Dental Assisting
    2. Career Enhancements

    Wine, African Kisii power hearts, and the dental assistant

    Sept. 18, 2019
    It's important for dental assistants to remember how important they are to their practices. Kevin Henry is offering a little "powerful" souvenir to remind them of their importance.
    Kevin Henry, Cofounder, IgniteDA.net

    I recently had the pleasure of joining a friend to celebrate her 50th birthday in northern California’s wine country. Not only was I with a dear friend, but the allure of a few days enjoying friendship and some adult beverages while solving the world’s problems made this a Labor Day weekend I’ll never forget.

    One of the days we were together, our group headed to downtown Sonoma. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend putting it on your list. The town square is filled with history as well as some great shops (and opportunities to taste more wine). What’s not to love?

    While we were there, my wife and I went into a shop that focuses on fair trade. I was drawn to some hearts sitting in a basket that were carved. They had various words on them, but the hearts I was drawn to the most had the word “power” written on them.

    I immediately thought of you, the dental assistant, and all of the power that you have in your practice every day to impact the bottom line of the business and your patients. Your patients trust you so much and look to you for guidance and advice. That, my friends, is true power, and I hope you never forget how important you are in their eyes.

    You are also important to the overall state of the dental practice in so many ways. You do things every day to make the practice run efficiently and smoothly. As I always say in my lectures, if you call in sick, it’s a bad day in the practice. No, not everything you do is exciting (cleaning out suction traps and occasionally digging a handpiece out of the trash is anything but sexy) but everything (yes, everything) you do makes a difference.

    Back to the stone hearts, I was told by the shop’s owners that they are Kisii stones and come from the region of Kisii in Kenya. These stones are reportedly abundant in the region and local artisans carve them to not only make a living but to help the world know about the part of the world where they live.

    I bought two of them that day, and I’d like to give one of them to you. I want you to have one of these stones so you can be reminded of the power you have in the practice. I hope that you’ll keep it somewhere that it can be a constant reminder to you about that power.

    How do you get one of these hearts? It’s simple.

    Share this article on Facebook and tag IgniteDA (our Facebook page) in the post. The more assistants who see the power that they have in the practice, the more we can spread the word about the important roles dental assistants play in their practices every day.

    I’ll randomly pick two of the people who share the article and tag IgniteDA as the winners. I’ll send the hearts to the two winners for what I hope will be a daily reminder of the power you have.

    Of course, as Spider-Man was reminded, with great power comes great responsibility. Improve your clinical skills to help your patients. Find the weak spots in your clinical or presentation skills and take the necessary CE courses to improve them. Make a pledge to yourself that you will be a better dental assistant in 2020 than you were in 2019.

    When you know where you can improve and you take the steps to make it happen, that my friends, is real power.

    Check out IgniteDA.net for some free resources that can help your career grow. You have the power to chart your own course in your career. You just have to make it happen.

    #TogetherWeRise

    ALSO BY KEVIN HENRY

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    About the Author

    Kevin Henry | Cofounder, IgniteDA.net

    With more than 20 years in the dental publishing industry, Kevin Henry is the former group editorial director for Dental Products Report and managing editor for Dental Economics. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief for DrBicuspid.com. He has spoken to dental assistants throughout the world, in person and through the Dental Assistant Nation podcast series, reminding them of the important role they play every day in their practice. He is also certified as a DiSC trainer, helping dental practices learn how to understand each other better through personality assessments and training.