Her Story
About Carrie
I began my journey in dentistry at just 15 years old, starting by cleaning the office and answering phones during the summers. I worked as a dental assistant for 10 years, then became a dental hygienist. After getting married and having children, I went back to school when my boys were in elementary school to become a hygienist. I later earned a dual bachelor's degree in healthcare management with an emphasis in dental hygiene because I wanted to teach, and I taught for a while. When I needed a change, I went into managing dental hygienists for Aspen Dental in the state of Wisconsin, which was my first management experience and I loved it. But then I started having grandchildren and was working on the road, so I applied for my current position. For the last 8 to 9 years, I've been the Director of Operations at a group practice where I finally hired an assistant last year after wearing all the hats myself. I've been blessed to work with wonderful offices that have invested in my growth over the years and had amazing mentors who noticed my growth potential. I developed a hygiene handbook for our 10 hygienists to ensure we're all cohesive in our explanations, verbiage, and systems, and I'm in the process of having it published. What Director of Operations means to me is that I'm taking the people doing the operations and elevating them in their career. My passion lies in helping people see their potential and helping them grow in that potential through education and encouragement. I will retire at this office because the dentists I work with are amazing.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Carrie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I've been so blessed to work with wonderful offices that have invested in my growth over the years. I've had very amazing mentors within the work setting who noticed my growth potential and worked towards me growing. They really invested in helping me develop and advance in my career. I'm so grateful for those mentors who saw something in me and gave me opportunities to learn and take on more responsibility. Without their support and belief in me, I wouldn't be where I am today.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's a wonderful career. I think the world is finding out now that there's such a link with healthcare and dental care, so you have such opportunity right now to be really on the forefront of change. I'm seeing it more and more every year. For example, our office has a relationship with a surgical hospital down the road - if they have a patient that needs open-heart surgery and they need to get in right away for a hygiene appointment to get a dental release so they can have surgery. I just love that the medical field is also seeing the value of dental. Dentistry offers a lot of the perks of medical without necessarily the weekends, or the late nights, or the overnights. It's a good balance. It's a great career to have a family if you want. It's a great career if you want to not have a family and you just want to enjoy the benefits of the wage. There's always something to learn and grow, and many opportunities, not just in the chair, but beyond the chair.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right after COVID, when a lot of people got out of dental hygiene, it was hard for us to get a full staff, so finding creative ways to get a full staff was a challenge - though we're fully staffed now and I'm really proud of that. Some of the challenges during the day are helping patients understand the dental and health link, and that they have free will to make a choice. All we can do is present the options and explain that if you choose to do it, it would benefit you, and if you choose to wait, these are what could potentially happen. It's about helping them understand it's not about financial gain for the doctor, it's really about health. Even though the medical community is starting to understand that link, patients are still not quite there understanding it, and that's really passionate for me. Insurance is probably my biggest thorn. Insurance is really challenging in having patients understand why we have chosen to be unrestricted with some policies. With the wage increase for hygiene and assisting, the insurance reimbursement is just not feasible, even though we're a group practice. It's very difficult for private practices now to thrive.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Trustworthiness is very important to me. I really always give everybody the benefit of the doubt until there's a reason for me not to, so I always start with a new hire where we have an open slate - trustworthiness, you trust me, I trust you. In both my work and personal life, trustworthiness is a core value that guides how I interact with people and build relationships.
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