Liisa Moore: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of RDH Canada. I am Lisa Moore here with my co-host, Jo Sigfried, and we have a guest joining us this week, the lovely Carrie Slade, ⁓ fellow RDH. So, and we learned our number one fan. She listens to all of our episodes. So thank you very much for that. And Carrie, I'm just going let you do the talking. So tell us about yourself. Where are you located? Where'd you go to school? Start from the beginning.
Kari Slade RDH: Start from the beginning. It's a long story. ⁓ So I'm currently located in Brantford. I grew up in Brampton. I have been a dental hygienist for 19 years this year. I went to a private school, A +, in North York, which is still an active school today. I was in their third cohort ever, so their accreditation year. So it was pretty strict. But like that was back when the programs were 18 months and like kind of quick and concise. ⁓ And then I started out in Brampton. So I worked a lot of jobs in Brampton. ⁓ I was somebody that always did like two part times at the same time. I kind of like to have a flow and be able to kind of bounce around. ⁓
Joe Siegfried: Thank
Kari Slade RDH: as would come to find out is because I have the ADHD, which kind of ended up creating the career that I have now. It's funny to look back in retrospect and think, ⁓ that's that. That's, you know, put those pieces together. Irene's episode, she talked about how she had dyslexia and how she thought, you know, how that would have affected her career. And I think it's so funny to have like a later adult diagnosis of something like that and be able to be like, like, oh, she said like, I think I'd be a doctor. And I was like, I wonder where I would be if I had known that. But anyway, then I got married and I moved to Brantford. And that's when I kind of switched my career from general practice to pediatrics. And I worked mostly pediatrics until I opened my own clinic, which kind of started in 2020 and became like a full thing in 2022. And that's sort of where I am.
Joe Siegfried: Did, was marriage, is what marriage is what took you to Brantford? Okay.
Kari Slade RDH: Marriage is what took me to Bramford. Brampton's a busy place. That was a big part of it.
Joe Siegfried: And do you have a storefront or do you have a what's your what's your your practice set up like?
Kari Slade RDH: my path. So I started mobile. So I started my practice in 2020 during the pandemic. So that's when I became a myofunctional therapist. And that's sort of when I started doing some things on my own. So I started out mobile and renting space from another hygienist. And then I ended up opening my clinic in 2022. And I have a space within an occupational therapist clinic. So she's a pediatric OT. And so now there's five of them. started out just the two of us and it's kind of grown into this thing. ⁓ And so my clinic space is within that space and we work collaboratively together helping our neurodiverse clients and then working, I work a lot with like she does feeding and I do strength ⁓ and function for oral muscles as well.
Joe Siegfried: So do you work a lot with that neurodiverse group? Because I know you teach a neurodiversity ⁓ webinar with RDHU. So can you talk about how you managed to work into that side? I think a lot of dental hygienists don't necessarily know how to.
Kari Slade RDH: I Sure, so...
Joe Siegfried: fully deal with neurodivergence in their chairs.
Kari Slade RDH: ⁓ yeah. So it kind of came, I feel like it was the thing that I was supposed to do. It kind of came in a few different ways. So working in a pediatric practice, you get the kids that general practices aren't able to take care of. ⁓ Whether that be very complicated GA cases with full mouth rehabs or kids that are terrified to come into the office or kids that have special needs and can't sit in the chair. So my career sort of started to go that way as I went into pediatrics and started to work more and more with neurodiverse kids. And then my own kid ended up, we ended up having an autism diagnosis for him right after he turned three, which was quickly followed by my own ADHD diagnosis and kind of translated into ⁓ sort of my personal life and my professional life. And the more you become aware, the more you see that A, this is
Joe Siegfried: Woof.
Kari Slade RDH: something that everyone can benefit from and B, traditional practice does not have room to accommodate kids like that ⁓ very often because to be frank it's not always profitable initially. So for me it became... client-focused care priority that led to creation of a space where I felt like families like my family could feel safe and comfortable and have the time and the expertise required to help their children thrive. Yeah, thank you.
Joe Siegfried: That's cool.
Liisa Moore: Hmm. I'm maybe, it's maybe a little bit of a personal question, Carrie, but I'm just curious, to get a diagnosis as an adult, could you maybe talk a little bit about that? Because I think we've all had times in our lives where we've kind of, because again, too, not that I don't want to age us too much, but like, everyone, I was a kid, it was always, you just have too much energy, just go outside. That was the solution, right? Was just go outside. Like I remember teachers.
Kari Slade RDH: sick Right.
Liisa Moore: telling kids to just run around, like just to burn the energy. Like the awareness just wasn't there when we were in school. So I feel like getting diagnosed as an adult, like you kind of mentioned it earlier, that light bulb goes off to be like, that explains a lot. So like, I'm just curious as to like, how did that, like not what led you to your diagnosis, but was it having your son was encouraged you to kind of pursue that? Or how did that, what did that look like?
Kari Slade RDH: Absolutely not. So I'll spill the beans on my whole personal life just because I'm chatty and I love to do so My sister was diagnosed with ADHD when we were kids ⁓ She has more of the like inattentive ADHD I have like traditional girl ADHD where I am hyper focused perfectionist Those kind of like first daughter characteristics that as long as you do very well in school
Joe Siegfried: you
Kari Slade RDH: That's like it didn't even cross people's minds in our day, right? It was like Well, you get straight A's but you have anxiety, right? I was like an anxiety girl not that That is hyper focus but it's just viewed in a different way if you're able to fulfill the societal role of getting your schoolwork done So for me it was always pushing those deadlines, procrastinating till the 11th hour, but I could pull A's. So nobody ever really, and it wasn't until as you get older and more responsibilities pile on and you wear more hats, because I am a perfectionist seeking ADHD, if I told you how many jobs I have, like, you know, kind of, right? We all know each other a bit. It's a little, so if you're that kind of ADHD, there's no, nobody seeks a diagnosis until you can't manage anymore. And so for me motherhood had a big and like the I could talk about this a lot, but the hormone changes, the lifestyle changes, all of those things that come with that transition to motherhood that is not really discussed in women's medicine is, as you know, profound and changes you completely as a person. So I think that's when I started to really be like, this thing is a thing. And then I had a kid with autism. And the more we learn about neurodiversity, the more they link ADHD as autism, right? So we went to all of the meetings, like a diagnosis doesn't just, you don't just sit down in a chair and they go, oh, your kid has autism. It's like six months of appointments and assessments. And so finally we go to like the final meeting. They lay out all of the stuff and say, your kid has autism. Me and my husband get in the car and we look at each other and we're like, you, this is you. And it was, and him and like and that's how it works right so luckily we had a doctor in that situation who was like you know this is a genetic thing and have you ever considered that this might be you so that's sort of what led us to then meeting with the psychologist getting a diagnosis ⁓ And sort of, for me, it hasn't changed that much. It's funny how you just learn to cope with it on your own and the strategies that become your management strategies are often just things you implement on your own anyway. But it kind of helped me to justify the things that I always took as being like negative character traits as something that was like easier for me to manage then, you know?
Liisa Moore: Yeah, I just asked because I feel like, and I'm relating this back to the field of hygiene, because I feel like so many hygienists are just feeling that burnout. You know, they're feeling burnt out there. They have young kids at home. They have spouses. They have houses. You know, the cost of everything just keeps going up. They're juggling multiple jobs. And I'm wondering how much is there's underlying issues that's not just burnout and it's not it's not in their heads. You know, is what I'm trying to get to is that there could be.
Kari Slade RDH: Right.
Liisa Moore: deeper issues here, you know, that just weren't, again.
Joe Siegfried: It's interesting when you say that Lisa, because when you look at the hygienist personality, we joke about being that A type personality who wants to get it. And, you know, our bosses talk, joke about how we're the perfectionists in the office. And it's a very common thread in dental hygiene. So it's interesting that you got to wonder how many of us aren't recognizing, don't recognize
Kari Slade RDH: yes.
Joe Siegfried: that it may be something else going on. Yeah, it's really interesting.
Kari Slade RDH: I think. that a big part of it is undiagnosed ADHD amongst this is, always say, because I teach as well, this is the perfect job for having ADHD because I get to do one thing with my hands while I do another thing with my mouth the whole day, you know, like I get to chat to a new person every hour, have a new story, put a new puzzle together, you know, try to figure out this and in my case, I'm not just like skill polish floor writing. I have like these more complicated situations. and then also bringing my functional therapy into that. Like I get to wear so many different hats in a day while being under the same hyper-focused umbrella of teeth and so many opportunities to continue to learn in a way that I think a lot of other careers don't have. You know, like we get the education and the hands-on that I think is very appealing to people of neurodiverse backgrounds, you know? the same way a lot of people who end up in trades are neurodiverse, ⁓
Joe Siegfried: Interesting. And then I wonder how much of the actual job contributes to that. Because the job is, yeah, interesting.
Kari Slade RDH: And that's the other side, That's the other side, for sure. And it is. And how do know the difference? I don't know how I think it's different for every person. For me, this is a pattern of behavior that started long before dental hygiene. So, right? So that's more I can look at a pattern of behavior that has happened my entire life and say, maybe that executive functioning piece is kind of missing there, you know? So I think you have to look kind of at the breadth of your experiences before you can make those. And then seeking help, right? Seeking professional support from somebody who knows and understands. And for me, the light bulb was the more supports I implemented in my life for helping with neurodiversity and ADHD, the easier that my life became, which reinforced that conversation, right?
Joe Siegfried: Mm-hmm. Right. Cool. That's really interesting. So sort of back to your practice, you are in Brantford and you work with an OT. And how does, so do you guys work on the same patients together? And like, how does that, how did that even come about?
Kari Slade RDH: I am. Okay, so again, another big one. ⁓ So Ashley is the OT that I work with. She was my...
Joe Siegfried: An OT is a... Thanks. ⁓
Kari Slade RDH: occupational therapist. Occupational therapy. So she is a pediatric occupational therapist. She only works with children. And she was my son's OT. So that's sort of how we met initially. And then my son ended up going to a different school, blah, blah. And I went to look at a hygiene clinic in that building. One day I went to look at a space because I was considering opening a clinic and she was there. And we got to talking and she She that at that point I was looking at opening a space specifically for treating kids on the spectrum and that's a big part of what she does. And then we ended up collaborating in our care. And then the more that she learned about myofunctional therapy and how what I do integrates with what she does, the more we became collaborative in our approach. So we kind of do things twofold. We support function in things like feeding. ⁓ But that is a two-fold thing that also piggybacks with neurodiversity. So we support neurodiversity through sensory integration, trauma-informed care, ways to help the child feel more comfortable in the dental environment by utilizing supports. And then on the other side of that, we manage the symptoms of things like ARFID and feeding disorders. So ARFID is like an eating disorder for kids. ⁓
Joe Siegfried: you
Kari Slade RDH: creating strength and function and ensuring that if there's things like releases that need to be done or other providers that needed to be roped in that I manage that part and then she manages the feeding side of things which as we know is beyond our scope of practice so dental hygienist scope of practice for the swallow ends at the oral phase once the food reaches the throat the secondary phase of swallow not our ballgame anymore but Ashley's ballgame is all the phases of swallow So I work to get the tongue moving and then she works to get the food and the swallow happening because things like that are not just one symptom based. They're often sensory integrated, ⁓ psychologically, socially, mentally, you know, there's lots of contributing factors to why a child is unwilling or unable to function with food and we manage that however it may look.
Joe Siegfried: you It sounds like you really have a niche sort of opportunity as well because I don't, you don't hear of these types of, as much as we all want to think we are into professional work, we want to be as collaborative as possible. There aren't a lot of collaborative types of practices. So where do you see the practice going? Is there something that you plan on, want to like you and your cohort are thinking, you said there were five of you in the practice?
Kari Slade RDH: So me and Ashley work predominantly together, but there's five OTs that all do pediatric. ⁓ We all do too much. So that's just like one of several other things that I do. So we would like to see more of the integration of feeding. ⁓ Right now we're working to try to have some of what we're doing covered by the Ontario Autism Program so that we can receive funding to support kids ⁓ because my integration programs for sensory supportive care involve the child coming every two weeks. So If there's no polish, no fluoride, no scale, there's no insurance. Right? And if you're... If you have a child on the spectrum, I am the last stop. You're probably seeing the OT, the PT, the SLP, you know, you're going for ABA. You have five different therapists a week. The costs become exponential. And then you'll come to me and I say, ⁓ well, you need to see me and you need to go have body work done because you are too tense, right? And your tongue position is junk and now you, know, so there's, it just keeps going. So in order for me to be able to keep what I do, accessible, part of that is advocating for services and support through the government and other, the Ontario Autism Program.
Joe Siegfried: So in terms of applying to the program, do you apply for each individual or would you apply as a provider? How does that work? Let's see. ⁓
Kari Slade RDH: So each individual applies and receives funding. ⁓ My clients, yes.
Joe Siegfried: So your clients, but you would, help them, you help them navigate.
Kari Slade RDH: But the window of what they're allowed to use that funding on is very narrow. So at this time, I need to have goals set and evaluated by the occupational therapist in order for my services to be covered. we basically, looking at, basically becoming an occupational therapy assistant in order to have what I do worked in with what she does. ⁓ And we would like to eventually as a parent, as an autism advocate like to see those services, that funding be allocated to services that a child needs on a child to child basis, right? Not based on arbitrary guidelines of what therapy is good therapy and what therapy doesn't deserve monetary support. So it kind of comes from all sides, from a parent, from a provider, from both sides.
Joe Siegfried: Well.
Liisa Moore: Do you do work with adults too? Get primarily peeds.
Kari Slade RDH: I mean the OT, like the feeding things, they're primarily pediatric because the OT is pediatric, but in terms of dental hygiene I see everybody. ⁓ The approach works particularly well for adults with anxiety. So the adults that I tend to see are more often like nervous to be there, maybe also neurodivergent or have had previous trauma that affects their ability to be part of the dental environment. I also work a lot with seniors with dementia Alzheimer's. So part of what I do is long-term care because those sensory supportive integrations kind of apply across the spectrum of age, right? So they kind of work well for every aspect.
Joe Siegfried: That's great. Cool. You sound like you have a really rounded sort of ⁓ personal practice, which is pretty impressive.
Kari Slade RDH: ⁓ yes, it makes me concerned for like... what happens when I can no longer do the practice. I've kind of like niched myself into a box a little bit. ⁓ But the beautiful part of that is that I get to work with the same people all the time. I get to create change. feel like I also get to help other hygienists see what's possible. Like outside of that scale polish fluoride that I think Lisa recently I heard you say something about that too that students are very like, I'm going to go into a practice and I'm going to be the hygienist that works for the dentist. And I think that being here and having these conversations and owning a practice and teaching and they show other hygienists that we don't just have to be scale polished fluoride. We don't have to be right one hour re-cares every six months with your three unit scale. Like that is not how it has to be. There's another side to it that makes me so passionate about what I do and makes my career so much more exciting and wonderful than I ever thought that it could be, you know?
Joe Siegfried: There's more. On YouTube, both teach students, whereas I, like I teach already been practicing down hygienist. My and I remember back in school thinking to myself, okay, if I don't want to be a hygienist, you know, because, you know, when you're in school, you think, ⁓ the long term career process, my body's going to be sore, all that stuff. I mean, I've been very blessed to not have to worry about that. But do you think about, okay, what am I going to do with this?
Kari Slade RDH: flying our DHS, yes.
Joe Siegfried: this diploma and this career when I can't scale Polish fluoride anymore. And I remember thinking, oh, I have to go into sales. Like I remember thinking that was the, not there's anything wrong with sales, but I remember thinking that that was the option. That was kind of like the only option after, yeah, or teaching. And at the time, teaching in clinical, like teaching at a college in clinical setting at the time, you needed to have a degree.
Kari Slade RDH: Right. You teach, you sell, or you scale. Right?
Joe Siegfried: So I don't know if that's still the case or not, but even just to teach in the clinic in college. So I remember thinking to myself, God, I have to get a degree in order to teach this, or I'm going to go into sales. So I don't think we really learn that all of the different avenues that are available to us until you get out there.
Kari Slade RDH: I don't think so. No. And I definitely...
Liisa Moore: No, like I currently have third year students and I say my functional therapy and maybe two of them have actually even heard of it, you know, and it's so, and that's why, and that's why I love doing this and having conversations to, know, and I tell my students about this because I'm like, listen to the stories. Like it's, it's, there's such a, there's so, so much variety out there. And like, I like, here's, I also wear many hats, you know, and it's like, you don't have to, like, you can, you can find your niche and find what you love and dive deep into that or.
Kari Slade RDH: Right? I'm sorry.
Liisa Moore: do a bunch of different things. Like there's no right or wrong.
Joe Siegfried: and then Brad the... Go ahead.
Kari Slade RDH: And I feel like what, ⁓ sorry. I'm an interrupter. I feel like a big part of when you're opening your own clinic is people are like, well, you have to, you can't dial in, can't, or you have to dial in and you have to be just one thing. It's very black away. And I think, no, why don't you just get to do every single thing that you want to expose yourself to? Like, why not? First of all, it's all under the umbrella of oral health, right? But second of all, that's how you maintain passion, right?
Joe Siegfried: fun. Well, and the bonus with having the autonomy of your own clinic is you get to choose those things. Right?
Kari Slade RDH: It's true. When we were speaking about students too, my students... SODC is pretty lucky in that, first of all, they have a bunch of teachers that are my functional therapists, but they tend to be very open to those exposures for their students. And they do teach like a neurodiversity program. They do teach a business practice course where they teach them how to create business plans and how to, you know, some of the aspects of what owning a business, how to build codes, how to, cause I think if you've never worked a front desk, you, how would you, it's gotta be so intense. intimidating, right? So they do they are trying to integrate those things I think slowly into practice and try to ⁓ Make them realize that there is more opportunity. There is more chance than just sales or scales, right? But I think yeah, I got to a point where it was like I'm going to quit this job and not be a hygienist anymore or I'm going to go out on my own and I'm going to make this what I want this to be And so I think that driving force of like, I know that I have the potential to make a difference. I know that the service that I'm providing is valuable and that there's people out there who want that service. It's intimidating to go against the grain and to step out and say, no, I'm not, I'm not going to do that. But for me, that was the way to go. couldn't fit into that box anymore. And I think that it's hopefully inspirational for people to know that you don't have to fit into that box. I think all three of us are kind of proving that on a daily basis, right? That this does not have to be that.
Liisa Moore: And I also think all three of us are totally guilty of saying, I'm quitting and I'm gonna go be a bartender or a real estate agent. Like we check it out and we're all like, if you've been in this field more than seven years and you haven't said that yet, that's kudos. Like that's pretty, that's impressive.
Joe Siegfried: And not.
Kari Slade RDH: Costco has good benefits. Right?
Joe Siegfried: Yeah, not that there's anything wrong with the going to your one or two offices a week and working from eight in the morning till five o'clock every day and scaling your and loving your patients. It's just and I was because I was in the same boat about six or seven years in. I was like, I can't do this anymore. I was just like, but then I got into sleep. and TMJ and learning about so many other things. Like, my own was even part of my world then. And then I started learning more and more and more about dentistry and but dentistry beyond fillings and cleanings. Like it just, I don't, I think, and it really is key to take your own career on a path that really lights you up. And I think, I think
Kari Slade RDH: Yes, yes.
Joe Siegfried: So for you, Kerry, that's the neurodiversity side of it and working with that sort of that ⁓ group of people, which is fantastic because we need more of that, I think, in the world to a degree.
Kari Slade RDH: I think we definitely need more vulnerability support in general. I mean, not just in dentistry, kind of across the board, but one way that I can affect that change is by creating that within dental hygiene, right? And I think it's kids, it's pediatrics, that's totally my jam. But the senior support, that stuff is so important too. It's not talked about enough. There's not enough people working in long-term care. then trauma-informed care and recognizing that that oral health is related to mental health and that mental health is very determinant on previous traumas and life experiences and how those things affect people's ability to want or be able to access care. And that, yes, I love the seniors and the kiddies, but there's also this huge group of people in the middle that don't fit into that regular box for whatever that reason may be. know, sometimes that's a previous violence situation. Sometimes that's a previous not good dental experience and sometimes it's mental health or anxiety that really didn't have anything to do with either one. But respecting trauma-informed care, giving clients the space to feel like what you're doing, your interventions are of a benefit and not... production based, think has value and creates a space where people feel seen and heard how much like this job is so much more than just I would say to my students like Implementation is one-fifth of our process of care and I am just as much when I was a bartender and a psychiatrist I am just as much of a dental hygienist as a psychiatrist and that that human interaction and that space of safety and respect is equally important as back removal, you know, and the things that we do to help the human experience, which that's my mission statement is, you know, improving the human experience. And I think that that's really at the foundation of what I do and really where I felt like my career took that turn and allowed me to feel really good about what I do every day. Thanks.
Joe Siegfried: Okay, this has been awesome. think we should probably have you on as part two for to talk a little more about long-term care. Where can people find you?
Kari Slade RDH: I would love to. Social media, something to smile about is my clinic and my social media is my website, something to smile about RDH. I teach at SODC, so you can also find me on their social media as well.
Joe Siegfried: So we'll have Kerry's Instagram handles and everything up in the post-op. So I just wanna thanks for having us. Thanks for coming on and so on.
Kari Slade RDH: Thanks for having me. I could chat all day. I'm sorry. I kind of feel like I was like, blah!
Joe Siegfried: So I'm Joe Siegfried and my co-host Lisa Moore. This is RDH Canada. You can find us on all of your streaming platforms everywhere and please like and follow and share and ⁓ we will see you next time. Thanks, Carrie.
Kari Slade RDH: Thank you.
Liisa Moore: Thanks, Carrie.
Kari Slade RDH: Start from the beginning. It's a long story. ⁓ So I'm currently located in Brantford. I grew up in Brampton. I have been a dental hygienist for 19 years this year. I went to a private school, A +, in North York, which is still an active school today. I was in their third cohort ever, so their accreditation year. So it was pretty strict. But like that was back when the programs were 18 months and like kind of quick and concise. ⁓ And then I started out in Brampton. So I worked a lot of jobs in Brampton. ⁓ I was somebody that always did like two part times at the same time. I kind of like to have a flow and be able to kind of bounce around. ⁓
Joe Siegfried: Thank
Kari Slade RDH: as would come to find out is because I have the ADHD, which kind of ended up creating the career that I have now. It's funny to look back in retrospect and think, ⁓ that's that. That's, you know, put those pieces together. Irene's episode, she talked about how she had dyslexia and how she thought, you know, how that would have affected her career. And I think it's so funny to have like a later adult diagnosis of something like that and be able to be like, like, oh, she said like, I think I'd be a doctor. And I was like, I wonder where I would be if I had known that. But anyway, then I got married and I moved to Brantford. And that's when I kind of switched my career from general practice to pediatrics. And I worked mostly pediatrics until I opened my own clinic, which kind of started in 2020 and became like a full thing in 2022. And that's sort of where I am.
Joe Siegfried: Did, was marriage, is what marriage is what took you to Brantford? Okay.
Kari Slade RDH: Marriage is what took me to Bramford. Brampton's a busy place. That was a big part of it.
Joe Siegfried: And do you have a storefront or do you have a what's your what's your your practice set up like?
Kari Slade RDH: my path. So I started mobile. So I started my practice in 2020 during the pandemic. So that's when I became a myofunctional therapist. And that's sort of when I started doing some things on my own. So I started out mobile and renting space from another hygienist. And then I ended up opening my clinic in 2022. And I have a space within an occupational therapist clinic. So she's a pediatric OT. And so now there's five of them. started out just the two of us and it's kind of grown into this thing. ⁓ And so my clinic space is within that space and we work collaboratively together helping our neurodiverse clients and then working, I work a lot with like she does feeding and I do strength ⁓ and function for oral muscles as well.
Joe Siegfried: So do you work a lot with that neurodiverse group? Because I know you teach a neurodiversity ⁓ webinar with RDHU. So can you talk about how you managed to work into that side? I think a lot of dental hygienists don't necessarily know how to.
Kari Slade RDH: I Sure, so...
Joe Siegfried: fully deal with neurodivergence in their chairs.
Kari Slade RDH: ⁓ yeah. So it kind of came, I feel like it was the thing that I was supposed to do. It kind of came in a few different ways. So working in a pediatric practice, you get the kids that general practices aren't able to take care of. ⁓ Whether that be very complicated GA cases with full mouth rehabs or kids that are terrified to come into the office or kids that have special needs and can't sit in the chair. So my career sort of started to go that way as I went into pediatrics and started to work more and more with neurodiverse kids. And then my own kid ended up, we ended up having an autism diagnosis for him right after he turned three, which was quickly followed by my own ADHD diagnosis and kind of translated into ⁓ sort of my personal life and my professional life. And the more you become aware, the more you see that A, this is
Joe Siegfried: Woof.
Kari Slade RDH: something that everyone can benefit from and B, traditional practice does not have room to accommodate kids like that ⁓ very often because to be frank it's not always profitable initially. So for me it became... client-focused care priority that led to creation of a space where I felt like families like my family could feel safe and comfortable and have the time and the expertise required to help their children thrive. Yeah, thank you.
Joe Siegfried: That's cool.
Liisa Moore: Hmm. I'm maybe, it's maybe a little bit of a personal question, Carrie, but I'm just curious, to get a diagnosis as an adult, could you maybe talk a little bit about that? Because I think we've all had times in our lives where we've kind of, because again, too, not that I don't want to age us too much, but like, everyone, I was a kid, it was always, you just have too much energy, just go outside. That was the solution, right? Was just go outside. Like I remember teachers.
Kari Slade RDH: sick Right.
Liisa Moore: telling kids to just run around, like just to burn the energy. Like the awareness just wasn't there when we were in school. So I feel like getting diagnosed as an adult, like you kind of mentioned it earlier, that light bulb goes off to be like, that explains a lot. So like, I'm just curious as to like, how did that, like not what led you to your diagnosis, but was it having your son was encouraged you to kind of pursue that? Or how did that, what did that look like?
Kari Slade RDH: Absolutely not. So I'll spill the beans on my whole personal life just because I'm chatty and I love to do so My sister was diagnosed with ADHD when we were kids ⁓ She has more of the like inattentive ADHD I have like traditional girl ADHD where I am hyper focused perfectionist Those kind of like first daughter characteristics that as long as you do very well in school
Joe Siegfried: you
Kari Slade RDH: That's like it didn't even cross people's minds in our day, right? It was like Well, you get straight A's but you have anxiety, right? I was like an anxiety girl not that That is hyper focus but it's just viewed in a different way if you're able to fulfill the societal role of getting your schoolwork done So for me it was always pushing those deadlines, procrastinating till the 11th hour, but I could pull A's. So nobody ever really, and it wasn't until as you get older and more responsibilities pile on and you wear more hats, because I am a perfectionist seeking ADHD, if I told you how many jobs I have, like, you know, kind of, right? We all know each other a bit. It's a little, so if you're that kind of ADHD, there's no, nobody seeks a diagnosis until you can't manage anymore. And so for me motherhood had a big and like the I could talk about this a lot, but the hormone changes, the lifestyle changes, all of those things that come with that transition to motherhood that is not really discussed in women's medicine is, as you know, profound and changes you completely as a person. So I think that's when I started to really be like, this thing is a thing. And then I had a kid with autism. And the more we learn about neurodiversity, the more they link ADHD as autism, right? So we went to all of the meetings, like a diagnosis doesn't just, you don't just sit down in a chair and they go, oh, your kid has autism. It's like six months of appointments and assessments. And so finally we go to like the final meeting. They lay out all of the stuff and say, your kid has autism. Me and my husband get in the car and we look at each other and we're like, you, this is you. And it was, and him and like and that's how it works right so luckily we had a doctor in that situation who was like you know this is a genetic thing and have you ever considered that this might be you so that's sort of what led us to then meeting with the psychologist getting a diagnosis ⁓ And sort of, for me, it hasn't changed that much. It's funny how you just learn to cope with it on your own and the strategies that become your management strategies are often just things you implement on your own anyway. But it kind of helped me to justify the things that I always took as being like negative character traits as something that was like easier for me to manage then, you know?
Liisa Moore: Yeah, I just asked because I feel like, and I'm relating this back to the field of hygiene, because I feel like so many hygienists are just feeling that burnout. You know, they're feeling burnt out there. They have young kids at home. They have spouses. They have houses. You know, the cost of everything just keeps going up. They're juggling multiple jobs. And I'm wondering how much is there's underlying issues that's not just burnout and it's not it's not in their heads. You know, is what I'm trying to get to is that there could be.
Kari Slade RDH: Right.
Liisa Moore: deeper issues here, you know, that just weren't, again.
Joe Siegfried: It's interesting when you say that Lisa, because when you look at the hygienist personality, we joke about being that A type personality who wants to get it. And, you know, our bosses talk, joke about how we're the perfectionists in the office. And it's a very common thread in dental hygiene. So it's interesting that you got to wonder how many of us aren't recognizing, don't recognize
Kari Slade RDH: yes.
Joe Siegfried: that it may be something else going on. Yeah, it's really interesting.
Kari Slade RDH: I think. that a big part of it is undiagnosed ADHD amongst this is, always say, because I teach as well, this is the perfect job for having ADHD because I get to do one thing with my hands while I do another thing with my mouth the whole day, you know, like I get to chat to a new person every hour, have a new story, put a new puzzle together, you know, try to figure out this and in my case, I'm not just like skill polish floor writing. I have like these more complicated situations. and then also bringing my functional therapy into that. Like I get to wear so many different hats in a day while being under the same hyper-focused umbrella of teeth and so many opportunities to continue to learn in a way that I think a lot of other careers don't have. You know, like we get the education and the hands-on that I think is very appealing to people of neurodiverse backgrounds, you know? the same way a lot of people who end up in trades are neurodiverse, ⁓
Joe Siegfried: Interesting. And then I wonder how much of the actual job contributes to that. Because the job is, yeah, interesting.
Kari Slade RDH: And that's the other side, That's the other side, for sure. And it is. And how do know the difference? I don't know how I think it's different for every person. For me, this is a pattern of behavior that started long before dental hygiene. So, right? So that's more I can look at a pattern of behavior that has happened my entire life and say, maybe that executive functioning piece is kind of missing there, you know? So I think you have to look kind of at the breadth of your experiences before you can make those. And then seeking help, right? Seeking professional support from somebody who knows and understands. And for me, the light bulb was the more supports I implemented in my life for helping with neurodiversity and ADHD, the easier that my life became, which reinforced that conversation, right?
Joe Siegfried: Mm-hmm. Right. Cool. That's really interesting. So sort of back to your practice, you are in Brantford and you work with an OT. And how does, so do you guys work on the same patients together? And like, how does that, how did that even come about?
Kari Slade RDH: I am. Okay, so again, another big one. ⁓ So Ashley is the OT that I work with. She was my...
Joe Siegfried: An OT is a... Thanks. ⁓
Kari Slade RDH: occupational therapist. Occupational therapy. So she is a pediatric occupational therapist. She only works with children. And she was my son's OT. So that's sort of how we met initially. And then my son ended up going to a different school, blah, blah. And I went to look at a hygiene clinic in that building. One day I went to look at a space because I was considering opening a clinic and she was there. And we got to talking and she She that at that point I was looking at opening a space specifically for treating kids on the spectrum and that's a big part of what she does. And then we ended up collaborating in our care. And then the more that she learned about myofunctional therapy and how what I do integrates with what she does, the more we became collaborative in our approach. So we kind of do things twofold. We support function in things like feeding. ⁓ But that is a two-fold thing that also piggybacks with neurodiversity. So we support neurodiversity through sensory integration, trauma-informed care, ways to help the child feel more comfortable in the dental environment by utilizing supports. And then on the other side of that, we manage the symptoms of things like ARFID and feeding disorders. So ARFID is like an eating disorder for kids. ⁓
Joe Siegfried: you
Kari Slade RDH: creating strength and function and ensuring that if there's things like releases that need to be done or other providers that needed to be roped in that I manage that part and then she manages the feeding side of things which as we know is beyond our scope of practice so dental hygienist scope of practice for the swallow ends at the oral phase once the food reaches the throat the secondary phase of swallow not our ballgame anymore but Ashley's ballgame is all the phases of swallow So I work to get the tongue moving and then she works to get the food and the swallow happening because things like that are not just one symptom based. They're often sensory integrated, ⁓ psychologically, socially, mentally, you know, there's lots of contributing factors to why a child is unwilling or unable to function with food and we manage that however it may look.
Joe Siegfried: you It sounds like you really have a niche sort of opportunity as well because I don't, you don't hear of these types of, as much as we all want to think we are into professional work, we want to be as collaborative as possible. There aren't a lot of collaborative types of practices. So where do you see the practice going? Is there something that you plan on, want to like you and your cohort are thinking, you said there were five of you in the practice?
Kari Slade RDH: So me and Ashley work predominantly together, but there's five OTs that all do pediatric. ⁓ We all do too much. So that's just like one of several other things that I do. So we would like to see more of the integration of feeding. ⁓ Right now we're working to try to have some of what we're doing covered by the Ontario Autism Program so that we can receive funding to support kids ⁓ because my integration programs for sensory supportive care involve the child coming every two weeks. So If there's no polish, no fluoride, no scale, there's no insurance. Right? And if you're... If you have a child on the spectrum, I am the last stop. You're probably seeing the OT, the PT, the SLP, you know, you're going for ABA. You have five different therapists a week. The costs become exponential. And then you'll come to me and I say, ⁓ well, you need to see me and you need to go have body work done because you are too tense, right? And your tongue position is junk and now you, know, so there's, it just keeps going. So in order for me to be able to keep what I do, accessible, part of that is advocating for services and support through the government and other, the Ontario Autism Program.
Joe Siegfried: So in terms of applying to the program, do you apply for each individual or would you apply as a provider? How does that work? Let's see. ⁓
Kari Slade RDH: So each individual applies and receives funding. ⁓ My clients, yes.
Joe Siegfried: So your clients, but you would, help them, you help them navigate.
Kari Slade RDH: But the window of what they're allowed to use that funding on is very narrow. So at this time, I need to have goals set and evaluated by the occupational therapist in order for my services to be covered. we basically, looking at, basically becoming an occupational therapy assistant in order to have what I do worked in with what she does. ⁓ And we would like to eventually as a parent, as an autism advocate like to see those services, that funding be allocated to services that a child needs on a child to child basis, right? Not based on arbitrary guidelines of what therapy is good therapy and what therapy doesn't deserve monetary support. So it kind of comes from all sides, from a parent, from a provider, from both sides.
Joe Siegfried: Well.
Liisa Moore: Do you do work with adults too? Get primarily peeds.
Kari Slade RDH: I mean the OT, like the feeding things, they're primarily pediatric because the OT is pediatric, but in terms of dental hygiene I see everybody. ⁓ The approach works particularly well for adults with anxiety. So the adults that I tend to see are more often like nervous to be there, maybe also neurodivergent or have had previous trauma that affects their ability to be part of the dental environment. I also work a lot with seniors with dementia Alzheimer's. So part of what I do is long-term care because those sensory supportive integrations kind of apply across the spectrum of age, right? So they kind of work well for every aspect.
Joe Siegfried: That's great. Cool. You sound like you have a really rounded sort of ⁓ personal practice, which is pretty impressive.
Kari Slade RDH: ⁓ yes, it makes me concerned for like... what happens when I can no longer do the practice. I've kind of like niched myself into a box a little bit. ⁓ But the beautiful part of that is that I get to work with the same people all the time. I get to create change. feel like I also get to help other hygienists see what's possible. Like outside of that scale polish fluoride that I think Lisa recently I heard you say something about that too that students are very like, I'm going to go into a practice and I'm going to be the hygienist that works for the dentist. And I think that being here and having these conversations and owning a practice and teaching and they show other hygienists that we don't just have to be scale polished fluoride. We don't have to be right one hour re-cares every six months with your three unit scale. Like that is not how it has to be. There's another side to it that makes me so passionate about what I do and makes my career so much more exciting and wonderful than I ever thought that it could be, you know?
Joe Siegfried: There's more. On YouTube, both teach students, whereas I, like I teach already been practicing down hygienist. My and I remember back in school thinking to myself, okay, if I don't want to be a hygienist, you know, because, you know, when you're in school, you think, ⁓ the long term career process, my body's going to be sore, all that stuff. I mean, I've been very blessed to not have to worry about that. But do you think about, okay, what am I going to do with this?
Kari Slade RDH: flying our DHS, yes.
Joe Siegfried: this diploma and this career when I can't scale Polish fluoride anymore. And I remember thinking, oh, I have to go into sales. Like I remember thinking that was the, not there's anything wrong with sales, but I remember thinking that that was the option. That was kind of like the only option after, yeah, or teaching. And at the time, teaching in clinical, like teaching at a college in clinical setting at the time, you needed to have a degree.
Kari Slade RDH: Right. You teach, you sell, or you scale. Right?
Joe Siegfried: So I don't know if that's still the case or not, but even just to teach in the clinic in college. So I remember thinking to myself, God, I have to get a degree in order to teach this, or I'm going to go into sales. So I don't think we really learn that all of the different avenues that are available to us until you get out there.
Kari Slade RDH: I don't think so. No. And I definitely...
Liisa Moore: No, like I currently have third year students and I say my functional therapy and maybe two of them have actually even heard of it, you know, and it's so, and that's why, and that's why I love doing this and having conversations to, know, and I tell my students about this because I'm like, listen to the stories. Like it's, it's, there's such a, there's so, so much variety out there. And like, I like, here's, I also wear many hats, you know, and it's like, you don't have to, like, you can, you can find your niche and find what you love and dive deep into that or.
Kari Slade RDH: Right? I'm sorry.
Liisa Moore: do a bunch of different things. Like there's no right or wrong.
Joe Siegfried: and then Brad the... Go ahead.
Kari Slade RDH: And I feel like what, ⁓ sorry. I'm an interrupter. I feel like a big part of when you're opening your own clinic is people are like, well, you have to, you can't dial in, can't, or you have to dial in and you have to be just one thing. It's very black away. And I think, no, why don't you just get to do every single thing that you want to expose yourself to? Like, why not? First of all, it's all under the umbrella of oral health, right? But second of all, that's how you maintain passion, right?
Joe Siegfried: fun. Well, and the bonus with having the autonomy of your own clinic is you get to choose those things. Right?
Kari Slade RDH: It's true. When we were speaking about students too, my students... SODC is pretty lucky in that, first of all, they have a bunch of teachers that are my functional therapists, but they tend to be very open to those exposures for their students. And they do teach like a neurodiversity program. They do teach a business practice course where they teach them how to create business plans and how to, you know, some of the aspects of what owning a business, how to build codes, how to, cause I think if you've never worked a front desk, you, how would you, it's gotta be so intense. intimidating, right? So they do they are trying to integrate those things I think slowly into practice and try to ⁓ Make them realize that there is more opportunity. There is more chance than just sales or scales, right? But I think yeah, I got to a point where it was like I'm going to quit this job and not be a hygienist anymore or I'm going to go out on my own and I'm going to make this what I want this to be And so I think that driving force of like, I know that I have the potential to make a difference. I know that the service that I'm providing is valuable and that there's people out there who want that service. It's intimidating to go against the grain and to step out and say, no, I'm not, I'm not going to do that. But for me, that was the way to go. couldn't fit into that box anymore. And I think that it's hopefully inspirational for people to know that you don't have to fit into that box. I think all three of us are kind of proving that on a daily basis, right? That this does not have to be that.
Liisa Moore: And I also think all three of us are totally guilty of saying, I'm quitting and I'm gonna go be a bartender or a real estate agent. Like we check it out and we're all like, if you've been in this field more than seven years and you haven't said that yet, that's kudos. Like that's pretty, that's impressive.
Joe Siegfried: And not.
Kari Slade RDH: Costco has good benefits. Right?
Joe Siegfried: Yeah, not that there's anything wrong with the going to your one or two offices a week and working from eight in the morning till five o'clock every day and scaling your and loving your patients. It's just and I was because I was in the same boat about six or seven years in. I was like, I can't do this anymore. I was just like, but then I got into sleep. and TMJ and learning about so many other things. Like, my own was even part of my world then. And then I started learning more and more and more about dentistry and but dentistry beyond fillings and cleanings. Like it just, I don't, I think, and it really is key to take your own career on a path that really lights you up. And I think, I think
Kari Slade RDH: Yes, yes.
Joe Siegfried: So for you, Kerry, that's the neurodiversity side of it and working with that sort of that ⁓ group of people, which is fantastic because we need more of that, I think, in the world to a degree.
Kari Slade RDH: I think we definitely need more vulnerability support in general. I mean, not just in dentistry, kind of across the board, but one way that I can affect that change is by creating that within dental hygiene, right? And I think it's kids, it's pediatrics, that's totally my jam. But the senior support, that stuff is so important too. It's not talked about enough. There's not enough people working in long-term care. then trauma-informed care and recognizing that that oral health is related to mental health and that mental health is very determinant on previous traumas and life experiences and how those things affect people's ability to want or be able to access care. And that, yes, I love the seniors and the kiddies, but there's also this huge group of people in the middle that don't fit into that regular box for whatever that reason may be. know, sometimes that's a previous violence situation. Sometimes that's a previous not good dental experience and sometimes it's mental health or anxiety that really didn't have anything to do with either one. But respecting trauma-informed care, giving clients the space to feel like what you're doing, your interventions are of a benefit and not... production based, think has value and creates a space where people feel seen and heard how much like this job is so much more than just I would say to my students like Implementation is one-fifth of our process of care and I am just as much when I was a bartender and a psychiatrist I am just as much of a dental hygienist as a psychiatrist and that that human interaction and that space of safety and respect is equally important as back removal, you know, and the things that we do to help the human experience, which that's my mission statement is, you know, improving the human experience. And I think that that's really at the foundation of what I do and really where I felt like my career took that turn and allowed me to feel really good about what I do every day. Thanks.
Joe Siegfried: Okay, this has been awesome. think we should probably have you on as part two for to talk a little more about long-term care. Where can people find you?
Kari Slade RDH: I would love to. Social media, something to smile about is my clinic and my social media is my website, something to smile about RDH. I teach at SODC, so you can also find me on their social media as well.
Joe Siegfried: So we'll have Kerry's Instagram handles and everything up in the post-op. So I just wanna thanks for having us. Thanks for coming on and so on.
Kari Slade RDH: Thanks for having me. I could chat all day. I'm sorry. I kind of feel like I was like, blah!
Joe Siegfried: So I'm Joe Siegfried and my co-host Lisa Moore. This is RDH Canada. You can find us on all of your streaming platforms everywhere and please like and follow and share and ⁓ we will see you next time. Thanks, Carrie.
Kari Slade RDH: Thank you.
Liisa Moore: Thanks, Carrie.
