President's Statement

I am happy to serve again as your 2024-2025 President.

My name is Hailey Bruggeman. I received my dental hygiene degree in 2018 at the University of South Dakota. In 2020, I finished my Master of Public Health degree. I have worked at Elwood Family Dental Care in Yankton since graduating. I have been teaching in the Dental Hygiene and Health Sciences Departments at USD since 2022. I have a two year old, Henry, and baby number 2 will be here in October. My husband Kody and I have been together for almost 8 years.

This will be my 7th year serving on the SDDHA board. I’ve held many roles on this board including membership committee member, secretary, president elect, membership chair, and president. My theme for this year is staying the same as last year - “progress over perfection”. I believe that change can be hard, and it is never perfect, but this year I want to focus more on the progression of dental hygienists in all settings.

This year supragingival scaling by dental assistants will be put forward for a rule change at a Board of Dentistry meeting by the South Dakota Dental Association. There will also need to be a law change for the rule to take effect, which will involve legislation to be put forward. With this change, it could affect both our careers and the lives of our patients that we serve. Myself and other board members will be attending the meetings and have information ready to combat the proposal. Thank you to everyone who filled out our survey earlier this year. This information helps us show why this proposal would be detrimental for our state. Your membership is now more important than ever - the more voices we represent, the better. Please reach out to me if you have questions about this topic.

While we are planning to put forth our own legislation and combat supragingival scaling in the coming years, it is an expensive feat. Your membership and support is crucial to expanding our profession to allow dental hygienists to expand their functions. For example, administering botox, restorative functions, entering the licensure compact, and the opportunity to be dental therapists. Whether you are a member or not, we would like your feedback on legislative ideas. I look forward to working with you all again this year.