Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Rhea Haugseth.
Rhea M. Haugseth, DMD has maintained a private practice in Marietta, GA since 1982. She attended the University of Louisville Dental School and completed her pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital/Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy and the Academy of Dentistry International.
Dr. Haugseth is a past president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the Southeastern Society of Pediatric Dentists, and the Georgia Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Haugseth has been a National Spokesperson for the AAPD since 1989 and has been frequently interviewed for radio, print, and national television. Dr. Haugseth has been a member of numerous councils and committees in the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
Dr. Haugseth served on the American Society of Forensic Odontology Board of Directors from 2001-2004. She is a Fellow and member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and an active member of the National DMORT Mass Disaster Team serving Region IV as a forensic dentist (odontologist).
Dr. Haugseth is also a member of the ADA, GDA, Northwestern District Dental Society, the Southwestern Society of Pediatric Dentistry, and is an associate member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Haugseth is also a member of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and has been an examiner on the board for the past 10 years.
Dr. Haugseth is the Founder and Director of the Pediatric Dental Assistant School in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the Founder and Director of the Pediatric Dental Assistants Association. She is committed to the pediatric dental assistants and continues to develop ways to enhance their knowledge and skills both in and out of the dental
After 32Years practicing in Marietta, Georgia, Dr. Haugseth founded the Pediatric Dental Assistant School in Marietta, Georgia. In her 35 years as a pediatric dentist in Marietta, Georgia, Dr. Rhea Haugseth has given thousands of children (from infant to college age) healthier teeth and better smiles. She has also helped them overcome any fears they may have had when they first visited Post Oak Pediatric Dentistry. She’s enjoyed watching several generations of kids grow up healthier and happier as a result of her efforts. She appreciates every smile, hug and giggle from her patients – and those priceless moments when she’d hear patients tell their parents they couldn’t wait to come back.
Dr. Haugseth has risen to the top echelons of her profession, serving as President of the Southeastern Society of Pediatric Dentistry, the Georgia Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and, from 2011-12, the 8,000-member American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Her overall love of working with children and dedicating her professional life to their dental and general health has given her the opportunity to solve one of the major challenges of her career. She has been continually frustrated by the lack of well-trained pediatric dental assistants she could employ as team members in her practice. There was little clinical training in pediatric dental assisting at the many dental assisting schools in the Atlanta area.
In recent years, she noticed that graduates of these dental assistant schools who came to do their “externships” in her practice seemed ill equipped to work in the pediatric realm; they had the book experience, but not any clinical experience dealing with young patients, which they needed to succeed in a dental office. This has led her to develop the Pediatric Dental Assistant School, a specialized program specifically designed to train dental assistants seeking rewarding careers in pediatric dentistry.
Her comprehensive training program – which promises that students will be “highly trained and clinically competent in nine weeks” – is similar to other dental assistant schools in the Atlanta area. However, the Pediatric Dental Assistant School is the only one of its kind in the United States. In addition to her commitment to growing the flagship location in Marietta, Dr. Haugseth is currently researching demographic trends and laying the foundation to open schools under this name in large cities where there are enough pediatric dentists to ensure immediate potential employment opportunities for the graduates of her training program.
Just as Dr. Haugseth and her staff at Post Oak Pediatric Dentistry use specialized, child friendly terminology (“giving teeth a shower,” “washing off sugar bugs”) to communicate dental procedures with young patients, she uses dynamic, infectious and cheerful kid-positive language on the school’s website to attract potential students. It asks visitors to “imagine a career that gives you lots of hugs, a multitude of smiles and tons of giggles every day! This is the life of a Pediatric Dental Assistant.”
The site also mentions an enticing statistic in connection to an expanding but still somewhat sluggish economy where college grads as well as young people who chose to not attend college are often struggling to find jobs or careers that interest them. A recent national survey demonstrated that the average salary for a pediatric dental assistant is $18 per hour.
While covering the basic elements of this unique training, the information on the website also states: “Pediatric Dental Assisting is VERY DIFFERENT from regular dental assisting. Our patients can be challenging, but the rewards are TREMENDOUS! Working with children and teens demands that we have fun while we work – they bring it out in us! WE LOVE KIDS – and if you are still reading this you do too! If this sounds good to you – join us. Become a PEDIATRIC DENTAL ASSISTANT! You won’t regret it. In fact, you’ll thank us every day you go to work. It’s FUN!”
Classes at the Pediatric Dental Assistant School are taught in her state of the art pediatric dental office and the curriculum is a mixture of home study, didactic course work, with an extensive focus on clinical experience and training. Contributing to the student’s personal development and their technical expertise is the fact that the ratio is four students per instructor. The workload includes 5-6 hours of homework per week; nine weeks of class (every Saturday) and 40 hours of externship; a passing grade of 75 must be achieved in all written and clinical exams in order to receive Certificates of Completion from Pediatric Dental School, a certification in Dental Radiology from the Georgia Department of Human Resources, and CPR Coursework includes Jurisprudence (covering the legal aspects of dentistry and patient records), Dental Terminology, Hygiene, Sterilization, Radiology, Impressions, Behavior Management, “Four Handed Dentistry” (chair side assisting, instrument passing, rubber dam placement, matrix and wedge placement, amalgam procedures, etc.) and CPR Certification.
“Developing the Pediatric Dental Assistant School is first and foremost connected to my desire to help dentists and their staffs take care of the kids being treated,” says Dr. Haugseth. “With the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, there are more children in the system that were not enrolled before. As pediatric dentists are taking care of the new patient influx, they will need more staff – and I know from personal experience how difficult it is to find qualified pediatric dental assistants who help us provide optimum patient care. It’s also about the young people and those who may be returning to the workforce finding solid employment opportunities. It’s that old Catch-22: to get a job they need experience but to get experience, they need a job. They need professionals who will take a chance on them. The great thing about our school is that they don’t need to have had formal coursework or previous degrees to enroll.”
“Another promising trend I am noticing is that patients who had positive pediatric dental experiences while growing up, finish high school and/or community college and are open to becoming a dental assistant,” she adds. “Those who are successful will sometimes opt to go to hygiene school and/or dental school.
Setting down roots in Marietta at a time (1981) when Cobb County was listed as the fastest growing county in the U.S., Dr. Haugseth created a “high tech, high touch, inviting dental practice with a fun learning environment.” Her focus has always been on individualized care for each child and building a foundation of trust by treating her young patients as individuals and family. Her key philosophy has been prevention and her team has, for over three decades now, provided state of the art treatment while taking the time to educate both parents and young patients on the importance of preventive care.
“It’s important that pediatric dentists and their staffs, including dental assistants, bring to the practice an awareness that kids truly operate on their own time and in their own way,” she says. “You have to bring an empathy for kids and genuinely like them and enjoy being around them – because they are fun! TV and radio personality Art Linkletter is famous for his quote, ‘Kids say the darndest things’ because they do! It’s great working with them because you never know what they’re going to say and what you will learn about them and yourself while working with them.
“They’ll often open up and tell you about what’s going on at home and school,” Dr. Haugseth adds. “It’s interesting how they filter and process things. One of the keys to being successful as their dentist is coming to understand that you can’t be extremely regimented when you interact with them. It’s important to be flexible and go a little slower. There are a lot of different variables, including dealing with their parents and making sure they are happy and comfortable with the dental care the kids are receiving. I see us as a coach for the family in how they can help develop and maintain optimum oral health for their children. We truly want every child to be happy and have a healthy, beautiful smile throughout their lifetime.”
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Revolutionary though it is, launching the Pediatric Dental Assistant School is not the first time I have broken exciting new ground in my profession. When I was at the University of Louisville Dental School in the early 70s, the field was truly a “boys club” and the prevailing mindset was that female students were taking up a spot that should be reserved for a male who needed to work to support a family. Women, many felt, would either drop out before earning their degree, or practice only part time or not at all when they had children.
I became frustrated when I would receive lower grades for comparable work to my male colleagues, but eventually my hard work and determination to succeed – combined with the success achieved by those female dental students who preceded me – helped me earn the respect of my peers.
Upon graduating, I still had some interesting times. Choosing to not set up a practice right away, I applied for a dental position through the Public Health Service. I thought I would work for Indian Health Services where there was an opportunity to take over for someone who was supposedly retiring – but that option fell through.
The one thing I said on my application I didn’t want was a position I eventually took – being a staff dentist at the Federal Male Maximum Security prison in El Reno, Oklahoma. Working there for a year on prisoners and transferees really helped me focus back on pediatrics. I decided that I didn’t want to take care of only adults and didn’t want a general dentistry practice. I applied to different pediatric dental residency programs and chose Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, which was affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry.
Establishing the Pediatric Dental Assistant School in Marietta where there are already several other dental assistant schools was not a deterrent. I knew my model and method of teaching at my program was drastically different from other programs. I know that repetition and experience lead to learning and confidence for my graduates that they truly know how to be a pediatric dental assistant. My colleagues around Atlanta eagerly await each new class of graduates that they can hire for their practices. I receive calls throughout the year looking for my graduates. My colleagues know that anyone who completed my program will be well trained and ready for employment. The comprehensive personal hands – on training of no more than 4 students per instructor ensure a high-quality learning experience like no other in pediatric dental assistant training.
In addition, numerous general dentists and pediatric dentists in Georgia send their recently hired, untrained, inexperienced dental assistants to us for training. They receive a highly trained pediatric dental assistant after 9 weeks. They often mention that even after the first week their new assistants have learned so much and are already contributing more in their practice.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would not do anything differently as far as the program, curriculum and training. I just wish I had started it earlier to help my own practice with employing the best student from each class in my own office!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pediatricdentalassistantschool.com
- Phone: 770-687-7940
- Email: peddentasstschool@gmail.com
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
