Elizabeth Erkert is a dental hygienist who has forged an interesting path in her 24-year career!
She is currently the Director of Dental Operations at Lake Forest Place.
This month’s spotlight is on Elizabeth Erkert, a dental hygienist who has walked a unique path throughout her 24 years as a dental hygienist. She graduated from Marquette University in 2000, spent a few years as an instructor at College of Lake County, and worked in private practice. She currently serves as an extension of her current dental practice Lake Forest Smiles as the Director of Dental Operations at Lake Forest Place, a long-term care facility.
Elizabeth was intrigued when the Public Health Dental Hygienist (PHDH) certification and related courses were offered. She decided to enroll, not fully knowing what she would use the certification for, but thought it might be able to open more doors in the future. As a hygienist at her current practice Lake Forest Smiles, she was aware that a dentist from her practice would make visits to the local assisted living facility to help with emergency cases. She knew that there were many residents at this facility, known as Lake Forest Place, local to her dental office, that were not receiving the routine in-office dental care that they needed due to health and personal mobility issues. Her passion for access to care issues was sparked, and she knew that she had the tools to help make a difference! She spent countless hours researching the Illinois Practice Act and getting advice from colleagues in the field. With the help of practice owners Dr. David Schmitt and Dr. Douglas Campbell, a plan was set into motion to help the residents of Lake Forest Place get the regular dental care that they so desperately needed.
Prior to Covid, Lake Forest Place had a dedicated dental room set up as an operatory for dental needs: a dental chair, a portable cart that operates the handpiece and suction devices, an old sterilizer and x-ray equipment. There was a contracted dental company who would take care of the residents basic dental needs. When Covid shut down the dental offices, this company abandoned the equipment, as well as the residents. Even though the equipment was old, Elizabeth rolled up her sleeves and “figured it out!” She researched the items, found replacement parts, cleaned everything up, and got the operatory to be fully functioning, along with updating it to be CDC and OHSA complaint. What started out as 1 of her office dentists coming in to help handle the occasional emergency case evolved into routine dental care and restorative services being provided by 2 dentists and 2 hygienists from the Lake Forest Smiles office to the residents of Lake Forest Place.
Elizabeth’s role as Director of Dental Operations at Lake Forest Place has her doing both clinical and administrative duties. She sees all the patients, relying on teledentistry to connect with the dentists at the Lake Forest Smiles main office for emergency visits and exams. This service has proven to be invaluable to the residents and has provided a seamless transition as the residents’ health deteriorates to the point where they cannot (or should not, due to mental health or physical limitations) leave the facility. Elizabeth is in a unique situation to be able to provide individual care based on the patient’s needs, and works closely with the clinic nurse to coordinate the dental visits. If the patient cannot make it out of their room on a particular day, Elizabeth will go to them to provide their routine dental hygiene care, including a teledentistry synchronous dental exam, brushing, OHI, and an oral cancer screening. Every Lake Forest Place patient that cannot travel is now being seen in a timely manner and getting their oral health services on a regular basis. If Elizabeth is seeing areas of oral care neglect, she will send photos to the administrators and the patient’s guardians if applicable to show the situation and explain why the day-to-day oral care needs to happen. She works to facilitate the daily oral care needs of the residents with the facility. Along with the clinical duties, she works remotely from home on the administrative duties and personally follows-up with the patient’s guardians for care authorization and providing updated dental status of their loved ones. Elizabeth is in her 3rd year at this facility and is excited to see that her efforts are truly making a difference! The program has grown to the point where they added a second part-time hygienist to see additional patients!
Working in this unique environment has come with its own set of challenges. Elizabeth has found some great products along the way to assist not only herself, but her patients as well.
Favorite Technology: Florida Probe, Mouthwatch’s Teledent program and intra-oral camera, Synapse Dental Pain Eraser
Favorite Products: Advantage Arrest SDF, microbrush, Enamelast Fluoride Varnish
Favorite Hygiene Tools: DNTL Works ProCart III, Acteon Newtron Piezo scaler with H3 Anterior tip, Leaf Suction, Dental Flex Arm
Favorite Homecare Tools I recommend to elderly patients: SymplBrush, rubber tip, soft picks.
Elizabeth is excited to come up with more touchpoints to help train staff on their own oral care as well as the care of their residents. She has found some simple, yet effective tips to help the caregivers get the job done daily: putting a brush into the resident’s hand will sometimes stimulate muscle memory and they will automatically open their mouth. A hand on the shoulder with a light massage can sometimes provide enough of a distraction to allow the teeth to get brushed. In addition, she is also working with EMPOWER Oral Health Illinois, in conjunction with IDPH, to train caregivers in other facilities on the importance of maintaining good oral health.
When Elizabeth is not working with the elderly, she enjoys reading, being outdoors and going on nature hikes with her family. She finds this to be a great balance to the chaos that life can sometimes bring!
“If you see a need for something to improve, don’t hesitate to think outside the “toothbrush” box, and you’ll find a solution.”
– Elizabeth Erkert, 2024