Shannon Nane, RDH

Hello my fellow hygiene homies!

My name is Shannon Nanne! I have been a dental hygienist for 31 years and I have been educating dental professionals on the horrific side effects of oral cancer globally for over 20 years. Continuing education has given me a voice to share my experiences with all of you to help improve the quality of lives by those affected by cancer therapies. When I was 29 years young I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, it was horrifying, debilitating and scary. I started looking outside the box of dentistry after that and started treating my patients differently after my diagnosis. We can agree that we can get in a rut sometimes when we are on a ‘schedule’. As I performed the oral cancer exam, I started looking at patients ears, scalp and even their arms! I thought to myself I should be educating other hygienists on what suspicious moles look like and how to bring it to a patient’s attention without scaring them. I developed a course to help other dental professionals on what abnormal may look like and how we have another opportunity to save a life in our chair. Presenting this course becomes easier and easier but usually ends up in a few tears along the way. What is your passion? How can you help your fellow hygiene homies heal from something that was definitely horrifying but after the fight made you stronger?

Thank you for your time in reading this and all of the submissions.

Shannon