The Georgia Board of Dentistry reviewed SOFT Smiles©
"...find your program to be excellent and a valuable asset
to the citizens of Georgia."
Pam Cushenan, RDH, MS, FSCDH is the CEO of Soft Smiles, LLC, an educational and mobile operatory that provides education, training, and soft debridement services to long term care facilities across Georgia. She started as a Hygienist just over 30 years ago in private practice. When a long-term care facility opened next door to the practice where Pam was working, there was an increase in the older adult clientele, many of which were semi-dependent. Pam clearly observed that this was an underserved population. With the interest in helping geriatric patients by furthering her education, Pam went back to school to focus on training and education. Upon completion of her Master's Degree, Pam launched her business in 2006.
Focusing on education allowed Pam to shift her emphasis to help her special needs patients not only during their quarterly preventive dental appointments, but throughout the year. In Pam's eyes, it wasn't good enough to treat these patients and then send them back to their facilities. She wanted to treat patients and train their caregivers on how to help manage the patient's daily oral care. It was vital for her to train family members and caregivers on what to look for and to recognize when the oral care wasn't being performed properly. Pam found that training caregivers on techniques for care when the patient cannot complete these tasks successfully is of primary importance.
