Working

Vanessa Hodges-Reed, RDH

Vanessa Hodges-Reed, RDH, has been a clinical research hygienist in the Delta Dental of Kentucky Clinical Research Center at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry for three years. However, she began her career in dental hygiene working in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“The Virgin Islands seemed like an exciting challenge,” she said. “The Caribbean also seemed like a fun and romantic location. What’s more, the process of acquiring a license was rather easy. I simply applied for a license in the Virgin Islands when I took my clinical exams for Kentucky and New York.”

Hodges-Reed stayed in the Virgin Islands for one year, and said she thoroughly enjoyed the experience. But when she first arrived at the dental office at which she was going to work, she was shocked.

“The staff was wonderful, but the resources were substandard,” she explained. “The office itself was very clean, nicely decorated and directly on the beach. However, there was no working autoclave; everything was simply soaked in glutaraldehyde. The curets were from the late ’70s. There was no working X-ray developer, and full-mouth X-rays were hand-dipped in Dixie cups. There was no recall system or hard-copy filing system of any kind.”

Hodges-Reed spent the first six weeks in her office ordering basic supplies, repairing malfunctioning devices and locating an affordable autoclave. She also composed a scaling and root planing kit and initiated maintainable systems for recall, hard-copy filing and treatment plans. Those systems are still in place today.

Shortly after returning to the United States, Hodges-Reed traveled to Ecuador with a team of University of Kentucky faculty and students to spend a week providing much-needed health care services to a small village. She was able to apply fluoride varnishes for over 200 children.

“My experience in Ecuador was educational and professionally valuable,” she said. “Personally, it was just as fulfilling. It gave me a sense of pride and perspective on life I will never forget. It was truly a soul-awakening experience. The children I treated were hopeful, energetic and kind, despite the extreme poverty in which they live.”

In March 2006, Hodges-Reed was hired for her current position as a clinical research hygienist at the University of Kentucky. She describes her job as blending scientific work with providing quality care to patients and families.

As a clinical research hygienist, Hodges-Reed has a variety of responsibilities. She manages the daily operations and works with the principal investigator to conduct large clinical studies. Other responsibilities include identifying and recruiting the study’s subjects; communicating and working with research organizations and offices in the college, university, private industry and government; assisting the principal investigator in maintaining the study’s regulatory, procedural and scholarly documents; and, of course, working as a dental hygienist.

Hodges-Reed is currently part of a five-year study of the effects of fish oil on periodontal disease. She and her principal investigator see patients who have moderate to advanced periodontal disease for a period of 28 weeks. During this time, the subjects take three omega-3 fish oil capsules a day. They come in for several visits at which a series of X-rays and tests are conducted. If their pockets haven’t improved, they are moved on to the next phase of the study.

“I took the position as a clinical researcher for several reasons,” she says. “I was interested in expanding my skill set, and acquiring research-related skills allowed me to do that. I wanted to use the skills that I had learned to help other people. I also wanted to change the scenery, so to speak, of my work. As a traditional hygienist, I was in the same physical space doing the same tasks every day. However, as a researcher, the space in which I work is constantly changing.”

Hodges-Reed says that one of the biggest challenges she faces in her job is remembering that her patients are study subjects who have volunteered to participate in research and are therefore not receiving comprehensive care.

The department in which Hodges-Reed works employs four clinical research hygienists, and while each dental hygienist has her own study, she said that they also help one another a great deal.

“I love my job,” she said. “It is interesting, and I am constantly learning about new developments in my field. I’m very lucky to work in a team-oriented environment where everyone strives to obtain the desired goal. I consider myself fortunate to work in an environment that focuses on solutions rather than problems and production.”

Currently, Hodges-Reed is working on obtaining a bachelor’s degree in clinical leadership and management.

This edition of Working was prepared by Frances Moffett.