Anna M. Pattison, RDH, MS, is a former associate professor and former chair of the Department of Dental Hygiene at the Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. She is also editor in chief emerita of Dimensions of Dental Hygiene, leading the journal for the first 10 years of its publication. She is the co-author of the textbook, Periodontal Instrumentation, with her husband, Gordon Pattison, DDS. This text has been used in dental and dental hygiene schools throughout the United States and around the world and has been translated into six languages. She has also contributed several chapters to the last six editions of Carranza’s Clinical Periodontology, which is available in seven languages and is the most widely used periodontology textbook to date. These textbooks have established Pattison as one of the world’s leading experts in the field of periodontal instrumentation. Currently, the Pattisons are co-directors of the Pattison Institute, which offers periodontal instrumentation courses throughout the US and Canada. In 2005, she received the Pfizer-American Dental Hygienists’ Association Excellence in Dental Hygiene Award and the USC School of Dentistry Alumnus of the Year Award. In 2006, she received the California Society of Periodontists Award. In 2010, she was inducted into the USC School of Dentistry Hall of Fame.
Practitioners should self-identify the presence of joint hypermobility and recognize its potential effect on the musculoskeletal system and the effectiveness of periodontal instrumentation.
The matriarch of dental hygiene, Esther M. Wilkins, BS, RDH, DMD, lives on through her seminal textbook, her passion for the profession of dental hygiene, and her personal impact on friends and colleagues.
The use of alternative fulcrums enables dental hygienists to apply the multidirectional strokes necessary to remove deposits from deep periodontal pockets.