Who am I?

My name is Brittany and I'm a dental hygienist. While  people often associate dental hygienists only with brushing and flossing (and nagging!) I'm out to convince the world that there is so much more to my profession. I work mostly as a clinical dental hygienist in a dental office, but I also teach dental hygiene students as a clinical instructor. I really enjoy having two different aspects to my career because I feel like I get to use two completely different parts of my brain. I'd really love to be a part of curriculum development for both dental hygiene students as well as public health dental programs in the future. Being able to help shape the future of dental hygiene and the way that we can serve the community at large would be very rewarding! I'm hoping that the HEAL MEd program will enable me to move towards my career ambitions as well as help me to be a promoter of health in my current positions.

As for health interests, food is a huge one for me. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about where our food is coming from and how what we eat effects our bodies. Treating the overall body as a whole rather than parts with symptoms is also important to me. Everyday, I see people who don't understand that their body is connected to their mouth and failing to take care of one effects the other. I'd love to explore ways to teach hygiene students how to approach oral health promotion in more of an overall health promotion way. Thirdly, I'm very interested in figuring out a way for other health professionals to work together (another bonus of our diverse MEd program!). So often, health professionals are singled out, but I think we have a lot to learn from each other as well as a lot to offer the public when we work together.

As for me, I've been active my whole life. I've always been a runner and I always seem to go back to running even after time away. I've played a variety of team sports (volleyball, basketball, rugby) in high school and focused a lot on triathlon in the years after university. I completed several sprint and olympic distance triathlons as well as a half-ironman (despite the fact that I still haven't found a way to love my bike!). I'm a fishy in the water and could spend hours swimming. I like to change things up (or have races to run) to keep things interesting which is why I've tried so many different things over the years (synchro swimming, bikram yoga, weight lifting, inner tube water polo). Trying to make my life as active as possible is a priority for me.