Malaikah Love

I attribute my success to God, my intuition, my ability to adapt, and constantly challenging my perspective and ideas in order to evolve. Most of the journey has involved learning as I go, but I’ve always had an innate desire to give my absolute best at all times. It’s about continuing to push toward success. I strive to do what is best according to who I claim to be, while keeping my goals and well-being a top priority. There is no other option but to give my all in every scenario. Nothing is more important to me than continuously improving myself and enhancing everything around me to the best of my ability along the way.

“Always find a way around the nonsense.”

There have been many hurdles along the road of my career that have been nothing short of nonsense. Discrimination, wrongful termination, whistleblower retaliation, and so on—serious issues with serious impacts on me as a person.

There are corporations and teams that will refuse to allow anything you try to contribute to become the catalyst for change simply because of who you are or because of how you look. If you are not welcome to help improve something, you were never truly welcome to begin with.

I’ve learned to avoid fighting or attempting to convince others of ethics, morals, or even legal compliance. If you are in an environment that lacks those values before you arrive, chances are you are in the wrong place. The answer is to find individuals and spaces that align with your standards of care and your conviction for excellence—especially when those standards and convictions are rooted in doing what is right.

Those spaces do exist. Those teams exist.

Learning to discern more quickly where I do and do not fit, and never growing tired of finding people who are just as driven as I am to be their absolute best, are a few of the tactics I use to rise above the nonsense.

Keep your oath louder than everything else around you.

There are many challenges within the dental field, one of them being standard of care. The “why” that is instilled in us throughout hygiene and dental school is centered on properly treating, educating, and protecting our patients. This should naturally be our first priority, but unfortunately, that is not the case for everyone.

There are varying perspectives and motivations as to why people become healthcare providers, but I firmly believe that understanding the seriousness of caring for another human being should be held in the highest regard. I do not view this merely as a personal opinion; rather, it is a principle reflected in the very oaths created to coincide with the seriousness of our responsibilities as healthcare professionals.

It can be difficult to convince individuals with misaligned priorities or methods of practice that excellence in patient care should be the ultimate goal. However, even making the effort to uphold those standards places you among the profession’s greatest providers.

When the pressures of production, convenience, or differing priorities begin to compete for your attention, keep your oath louder than everything else around you.

In my opinion, the greatest challenge facing the dental profession is standard of care. According to psychiatrist and brain health specialist Dr. Daniel Amen, most medical professionals practice the standard of care—or the highest level of care—less than 15% of the time. I would argue that the percentage is even lower within dentistry.

If you search for the prevalence of periodontal disease in the United States, the reported number is approximately 47.2% of adults. From my firsthand experience, I believe the true number is significantly higher. As a contracting dental hygienist, many of my assignments involve restoring neglected hygiene departments. I often spend three to twelve months helping practices transition patients to appropriate three- to four-month recare intervals and, when indicated, root scaling and periodontal maintenance schedules, rather than continuing the blanket practice of placing nearly all patients on six-month recalls regardless of clinical need.

Based on my experience, I can confidently say that nearly two out of every three patients are likely on an inappropriate oral hygiene visit schedule. The effects of periodontal disease—and the bacteria associated with it—can negatively impact overall health, contribute to chronic disease processes, and potentially shorten lifespan.

The greatest challenge, in my opinion, is getting every dentist and dental hygienist to take these realities seriously enough to implement meaningful change, particularly when those changes are not mandated.

We are actively advocating at the state level to ensure that all individuals practicing dental hygiene meet the education, training, and competency standards required to provide safe patient care. I cannot think of a clearer example of how much room there is for improvement within our profession than allowing inadequately trained healthcare providers to perform clinical procedures on patients.

I believe there is tremendous opportunity to improve the state of our industry through thoughtful legislation, stronger regulations, and a collective commitment to raising standards of care. Meaningful change is possible when patient well-being remains the profession’s highest priority.

Growth and Excellence.

You will not find anyone else like me. I often have to dial myself back because the level at which I feel most comfortable operating is higher than what most people have encountered before. As mentioned earlier, I believe in giving my absolute best, and I have no problem overshooting. If there is room for improvement, I want to know. If there is something I am missing, I would love to know. Either way, I will be giving it everything I have from start to finish.

I desire to be around those who strive to be the best versions of themselves. Individuals who offer all they can for the betterment and growth of others. I am here to make myself and everyone around me better, and I enjoy being surrounded by people who share that same goal: excellence. I do not strive for excellence to claim superiority over others, but rather to become the best version of myself. I am motivated by greatness in others, not intimidated by it.

The desire to constantly improve yourself is difficult for many people to understand. When you are surrounded by individuals whose mindset, morals, integrity, and core values do not align with that pursuit, you run the risk of being accused of trying to outdo others or tear them down. You also run the risk of encountering people who will do everything they can to halt or stunt your growth out of their own fears or the perception that you need to be humbled.

I have never sought to diminish someone’s ambition or discourage their pursuit of excellence, which is why I believe I have excelled in so many areas. I need the best people beside me—people who push me toward greatness while pursuing greatness themselves.

In both my professional and personal life, I no longer entertain the idea of limiting myself by remaining in the company of those whose goal is not to improve themselves and the world around them. I must grow. I must evolve. I must learn as much as possible and give my all. This is who I am, and I have learned that although it may be rare, it is perfectly normal and should be embraced without apology.

Any lesser version of myself is unacceptable—to me. Any environment or individual that does not share that same tenacity is simply not the right fit. For that reason, I am especially honored to be featured among these amazing, like-minded, tenacious women of influence.