Lindsey Vizcay, BSDH, RDHAP, RDH, RDAEF2

Dear Philips and RDH mag representatives,

There are some dental hygienists who practice with skill and then there are some who quietly re-engineer the entire idea of access. Lindsey Vizcay is doing both. And she’s doing it with a steadiness and sincerity that stops most in their tracks.

I am nominating Lindsey for the Philips Heart to Hands Award because she lives at the exact intersection this award was created to honor: heart-driven purpose paired with hands-on, barrier-breaking action. Lindsey does not wait for patients to figure out how to get to care. She brings care to them. Again. And again. And again. Every week.

As the founder of Home Sweet Hygiene, Lindsey has built a mobile, community-based dental hygiene practice that shows up in places where dentistry has historically not stayed or even been. Schools. Head Start classrooms. Public libraries. Group homes. Private residences. Foster youth programs. Homes of patients who are homebound, medically fragile, anxious, disabled, or simply exhausted by a system that wasn’t built with them in mind. Lindsey identified the gap and she stepped into it and stayed there.

What makes Lindsey love dental hygiene is easy to see. It’s the relationships. It’s the familiarity. It’s the way care changes when it’s delivered in a space where someone feels safe. She understands that for many of her patients, such as children with sensory differences, adults with developmental disabilities, seniors with memory challenges, and individuals with severe anxiety, the environment is the treatment. So she adapts. She slows down. She listens. She adjusts her hands to match what her heart already knows.

Her clinical reach spans the full lifespan, which is rare on its own. But what truly sets Lindsey apart is how intentionally she builds trust across that lifespan. Infants and toddlers in early education settings. School-aged children navigating special education systems. Adults with developmental disabilities who have been turned away or misunderstood. Homebound seniors who have not received oral health care in years. Lindsey meets each of them without assumptions and without rushing. That matters more than people realize.

Beyond direct care, Lindsey is a tireless educator. She doesn’t hoard knowledge. She disperses it. She speaks at disability conferences, community resource fairs, school district Special Needs Parent Nights, and elder-focused gatherings like Solano SHARES. Families come back. Districts invite her again. Community partners ask her to stay involved. That repeat invitation tells you everything you need to know about the impact she’s having.

She also teaches us. Lindsey provides continuing education and training for dental professionals, breaking down how to deliver care to special needs populations, how to practice minimally invasive dentistry, and how to step outside the four walls of a traditional operatory without fear. She gives other hygienists permission and practical tools to expand what they thought was possible. That ripple effect is powerful. It’s also very Heart to Hands.

In her role as Dental Coordinator for Valley Mountain Regional Center, Lindsey works at a systems level while staying deeply patient-centered. She navigates funding pathways, coordinates complex care, advocates for individuals with developmental disabilities, and tackles barriers most people never see. This role allows her to influence access far beyond the individual appointment, yet she never loses sight of the human being at the center of it all. That balance is hard. She makes it look natural.

Lindsey’s credentials (RDHAP, RDAEF2, advanced training in minimally invasive dentistry) matter, but they are not the headline. The headline is that she uses every one of those skills in service of people who otherwise would go without. Her recent national recognition through Waterpik’s Clinical Recognition Program makes sense as it reflects the quiet, relentless good she is doing week after week.

As a dental hygienist, advocate, and future dentist deeply committed to underserved communities, I can say this with full confidence: Lindsey Vizcay represents the future of oral health access. She is innovative and brave. Deeply competent, deeply kind, and deeply committed. She is the kind of professional who elevates the entire field simply by doing what needs to be done, especially when it’s inconvenient or unseen.

The Heart to Hands Award honors those whose love for dental hygiene moves them to action that changes lives. Lindsey’s hands are already doing that work. Her heart has been there the whole time.

Warmly and with deep respect,Aleah Diemand, RDH, BSDH