Virtual Study Club: Happy Implants, Happy Clients: A Dental Hygienist’s Playbook
Happy Implants, Happy Clients: A Dental Hygienist’s Playbook
Event Description
Restoring edentulous spaces with dental implants has become a routine component of modern dental practice, and dental hygienists now encounter clients with single or multiple implants on a daily basis. Despite this, confusion persists regarding the appropriate methods for assessing, maintaining, and treating clients with dental implants.
This presentation applies the ADPIE model to review essential elements of dental hygiene care for clients with both healthy and compromised implants. We will examine evidence-based assessment strategies, maintenance protocols, and clinical decision-making considerations. We will also explore home-care tools and techniques that clients can use to support long-term implant health.
Finally, we will provide a concise overview of surgical interventions performed by periodontal specialists when peri-implant disease progresses beyond the scope of dental hygiene therapy.
Learning Objectives:
After completing this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify the etiology of peri-implant diseases and recognize early clinical signs associated with implant complications.
- Differentiate gingival attachment to dental implants versus natural teeth, including key anatomical and functional distinctions.
- Review and apply the AAP classification of peri-implant diseases to clinical assessment and documentation.
- Utilize the ADPIE model to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate dental hygiene care for clients with healthy and unhealthy dental implants.
- Recommend evidence-based home-care tools and techniques to support clients in maintaining optimal peri-implant health.
- Describe periodontal surgical interventions available when peri-implant disease progresses beyond the scope of nonsurgical dental hygiene therapy.
About the Presenter
Aiste Zevick, LDH(c), BDSc(DH), MS is a dedicated dental professional with nearly three decades of experience in clinical practice, education, and community service. After immigrating from Lithuania to Canada in 1997 as a dentist, she earned her Dental Hygiene diploma from VCC in 2007, followed by a Bachelor’s degree in Dental Hygiene from UBC in 2012 and a Master of Science in Aging and Health from Queen’s University in 2022, where she received the Most Promising Researcher Award. Aiste has been recognized with multiple honours, including the Dental Hygiene Superhero finalist distinction (2021) and the BCDHA Barbara Heistermann Award (2022).
Presently, Aiste practices dental hygiene three days per week in a periodontal practice in Vancouver. Her clinical work has also included providing periodontal care in Yellowknife and supporting the growth of a general dental practice. She is an experienced educator who teaches in UBC’s Local Anaesthesia course, serves as a Waterpik professional educator, and presents regularly to dental and dental hygiene study clubs.
Aiste is active in local community and international volunteerism, participating in multiple humanitarian trips to Mexico and providing dental hygiene care at the Ipoderac orphanage.
