President's Statement

Hello, my name is Hailey Bruggeman. I received my dental hygiene license 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 recently began teaching multiple courses in the Dental Hygiene and Health Sciences Departments at USD in 2022. I have a one year old, Henry, and my husband Kody and I have been together for 7 years.

This will be my 6th year serving on the SDDHA board. I started as the membership chair in 2018, moved to the secretary position, and I have gotten the pleasure of serving as the president elect and membership chair for the past two years. I am grateful to serve as your President this year. My theme for this year is “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.

The 5 goals I have for my presidency are:

-To support dental hygienists in a variety of roles and pursue opportunities to advance the profession.

-To collaborate more with the South Dakota Dental Association.

-To promote the recognition, awareness and importance of dental hygienists.

-To provide an engaging, inviting, and supportive space for dental hygienists and to increase membership and participation in SDDHA.

-To be a leader in developing and delivering dynamic, high quality learning opportunities. We know there are many options out there available for CE, but we hope to provide you with some enriching learning opportunities.

We were fortunate enough to put forth legislation last year. Together with our lobbyists in Pierre and the support of the South Dakota Dental Association, we passed House Bill 1155. While we are planning to put forth more legislation 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 and the opportunity to be dental therapists. I ask that whether you are a member or not, please let us know what we can do to make the dental hygiene profession better. Your feedback is important for our success. I look forward to working with you all. Thank you.