Treating Decay Without a Dental Drill: You'd Be Surprised What You Can Achieve

Crystal Spring, RDH, BS, LAP, has spent the last 23 years practicing as a clinical dental hygienist, serving in dental hygiene leadership, and advocating for access to care. She has a diverse resume, including starting a mobile preventative dental non-profit, mentorship program, consulting, grant writing, and interprofessional education. Crystal is passionate about medical-dental integration and access to equitable care. She has spent the majority of her career working to improve oral health disparities in vulnerable populations. Her unique experience caring for patients in varying mobile and public health settings has empowered her vision to help others to take the leap into untraditional dental settings. Crystal and her team (Smiles Across Montana) focus on a whole health approach to preventative services and work hard to advance the use of medical-dental integration into the healthcare system. Crystal works with several nursing schools to add intraoral imaging, oral cancer screening, interprofessional communication, and preventative oral health services into their curriculum.
Crystal is a past president of the Montana Dental Hygienists Association and has served on the ADHA Board of Trustees. She is a national award-winning RDH receiving the 2017 ADHA/HuFriedy Master Clinician Award, the 2019 Sunstar RDH Award of Distinction, the 2020 Today's RDH Honor Award, and the 2021 Dimensions Six Dental Hygienists You Want To Know. Crystal also serves as a Key Opinion Leader in the dental industry and has been featured on dental podcasts and articles. She currently serves on the RDH editorial advisory board as well as writing articles centered around medical-dental integration, prevention, access to care, and public health.
Crystal's spirited approach to leadership and advocacy has allowed her to share her passion for improving oral health, overall health, and equitable preventative services for everyone.
Areas of Expertise: Public speaking, Mobile and Teledentistry, Public Health, Medical/Dental Integration, and Advocacy.