Shawn O'Hara: Welcome everyone. My guests today are Stephanie McKinnell and Namrita Sandhu. They are the co-founders of Haven Dental Hygiene and Whitening in White Rock. Stephanie has been a registered dental hygienist since 2007 and completed a Bachelor of Science in Oral Health Promotion, as well as advanced training to become a dental hygiene practitioner. Stephanie has experience in both private practice and education, including serving as a clinical instructor in UBC's Dental Hygiene degree program, which shaped her commitment to evidence-based ethical care. At Haven, she focuses on creating a calm, welcoming environment where patients feel heard, supported, and fully informed about their oral health. 

Her approach blends clinical excellence with a genuine passion for building long-term, trusting relationships with her patients. Namrita brings nearly two decades of clinical experience to the practice. She graduated from the Canadian Institute of Dental Hygiene in 2006 and has continued to expand her knowledge through further studies at Thompson Rivers University and ongoing continuing education. Namrita is known for her gentle, detail-oriented approach to care and her commitment to maintaining high clinical standards. She is also active in community and volunteer initiatives with a particular interest in improving access to oral care for underserved groups. 

At Haven, she is dedicated to making every visit feel comfortable, personalized, and supportive, helping patients feel truly cared for rather than rushed through an appointment. Welcome, Stephanie and Namrita. So please tell me what you do and what you like about it. 

Namrita: Thank you for having us. What we do is we are oral health professionals. We focus on prevention, we do everything that you would see in a traditional dental office except for restorative care, so all the x-rays, the cleaning we call hygiene, polishing, fluoride, oral cancer screenings, nutritional counseling, smoking cessation counseling, all of that. 

Shawn O'Hara: So cancer screening and smoking cessation, that is much more than just a regular cleaning that most people think of. 

Namrita: It is. Our scope of practice definitely allows for all of that. Oral cancer screenings, we just do a visual exam in the mouth and then a physical exam of your head and neck through palpation. 

Shawn O'Hara: That is neat. And you started this, you do not have a dentist on staff, so what was missing in the traditional dental setting that you wanted to change when you opened Haven? 

Steph: Thanks for having us, Shawn, by the way. We just found that there were a lot of limitations in a traditional practice. We like being able to tailor the appointment times best suited for each individual. So even down to little one's very first visit, they might be two years old and who knows what we will get through. 

We never force anything. We want it to be a very introductory and fun experience. Usually in a traditional practice, they will set a 15 minute, maybe half an hour appointment time. Maybe that is enough for us too, sometimes maybe not, so we just like to set aside and custom tailor appointments. Same with our adult patients or teens, you never know what someone may open up with and maybe they just need to chat a bit about something even completely unrelated to their teeth or mouth. 

So we do like that, and that again led to the same kind of time limitations where we felt limited with practicing to our full scope. So we like to check every patient's blood pressure. We do not have a pediatric blood pressure cuff, but we do late teens and older. This was something we would do usually in the office that we worked at before, but not as consistently. 

At least then we would sort of justify or prioritize patients who did have hypertension or type two diabetes that were maybe a little more at risk, but that is not the philosophy behind checking it. Now we can do it for every single patient, and it has actually been somewhat alarming how many patients that we have screened that we have had to refer to their GP, or even closely to almost to the point where we would have to send them to the emergency room. In all different ages, this is not just our senior patients who already have health complications, it can be anybody. So it is really rewarding to be able to include all of those steps in our day-to-day practice. 

It is just more fulfilling and also sets the precedent that we are not just teeth cleaners, we are primary healthcare providers. We can be first point of contact for someone, and it might be initially about teeth, but then we might assess and see something correlated to a systemic disease potentially, and then we can refer them to the appropriate health professional to investigate that further. 

Shawn O'Hara: If I understand, you actually have had to send somebody to emergency. 

Steph: We were very close. The patient's readings basically said they should go, but then the patient said, this is very common for me, which is bizarre, but they did have recordings previously and they did end up going to their GP and their GP is aware. But what the readings told us, we had a little one-on-one meeting between Namrita and myself. 

But they said we did phone the patient's spouse to come and get the patient, and then the both of them said, and he said, I feel fine, and the spouse said, yeah, he is always, it is always like that. But yeah. 

Shawn O'Hara: That is very comprehensive. So that, I guess, emphasizes the importance of dental health. What does a typical visit to Haven feel like? 

Namrita: I think when you walk in, and Shawn, we would love to have you here when you are on the Lower Mainland at some point, most people will say it feels like walking into a spa. We try to create an environment that is very calming. It is clean, it is a neutral palette. So people come in and I think they just immediately feel like any anxiety that they may have had is somewhat relieved. 

I think Stephanie and I are both just excited to see our patients, whether they are new patients we are just getting to know or our family and friends that are coming in to support us, so it feels like you are walking in and we already know you. A typical visit starts with the screenings that we talked about, the blood pressure, oral cancer screening, a review of the medical history, any updates. We will update x-rays as needed and get started with the actual appointment. 

Before we start, we have many offerings such as aromatherapy, weighted blankets, noise canceling headphones, under eye patches, face masks, just to make the appointment more comfortable. 

Shawn O'Hara: Even people, let us say, terrified of their dentist, would they find your environment, is it more relaxing or potentially just as scary? 

Namrita: We like to think so. You are not going to hear a drill in the next chair. You are not going to often hear a crying child in the next chair. We have really nice big windows in our operatories, so there is a lot of natural light that comes in. 

Yeah, so I think we like to think it would be less anxiety inducing than a traditional dental setting, which can often feel really rushed. Often the waiting rooms are quite full. It always seems like the assistants are kind of running back and forth and the receptionist's phones are ringing and there is just a lot of people. 

Steph: Yeah, yeah, and a lot of feedback from our patients too, even to the point where they will say, I saw that you do not have a dentist here, so that was appealing to me. We will tell patients, we do not replace dentists, we definitely are a part of a team and collaborative teamwork is necessary, but we will refer to trusted dentists who we know have the same style of kind of a gentler approach and are trustworthy. 

But yeah, we have heard that multiple times that people liked the fact that there was no dentist here. 

Shawn O'Hara: Are not there new guidelines about when people should see their dentist? 

Namrita: So initially one of the classes was, it was called 365 day exempt. So as a registered dental hygienist, you had to have this 365 day exempt status, which meant that you could see a patient if they had not had a dental exam in the last 365 days. However, the majority of registered hygienists did not have this exemption. That was a limitation. 

We are dental hygiene practitioners, but with our designation, there is no requirement. However, as Steph mentioned, we do want to work collaboratively with dentists and refer as needed. There are many people who are not very cavity prone, so if they have not had a filling in the last two or three years, they may not need an exam every six months or every year. 

It may just be every two years. We definitely advise that they do see a dentist for an exam as needed. 

Shawn O'Hara: When I first started going to the dentist or remember going to the dentist, and I was never terrified of the dentist, it has always been a good experience, but I just remember very basic cleanings and it seems that it has changed quite a lot. But I am wondering if a lot of people understand how important good oral hygiene is or the impact that it has on their overall health. 

Steph: I think that a lot of people are not aware. I agree. Still, I think the awareness is kind of catching on. We try to do educational content on our social media page just to highlight that. It seems like every few months they discover another correlation between oral inflammation and systemic health. 

I think the last time we counted, we had a huge tally, it was 17 systemic diseases that have been thoroughly researched that show a correlation between oral health, oral inflammation. So the two that have been the most well researched are disease, hypertension, type two diabetes. However, they are finding that specific oral pathogens can be found in the plaques that lead to Alzheimer's. There is a correlation with erectile dysfunction. There are correlations with low birth weight and preterm births in pregnancy, and the list is quite extensive. 

So we are hoping that we can continue to spread the word and create more awareness around that, and even just classifying dental hygienists or dental hygiene practitioners as primary healthcare providers. We always have been, but the general public probably has never thought that, so hopefully we can bring awareness to that as well. 

Shawn O'Hara: Yeah, one of my daughters is going through the dental hygiene program, and I have developed a much greater appreciation when I see what she has to study. I thought it was just lay there and get my teeth cleaned, but there is a lot that is going on. And when somebody wakes up in the morning, should they drink water first or should they brush their teeth first? 

Steph: I do not think that one matters too much. 

Shawn O'Hara: Okay. 

Steph: The question is, should you have breakfast, brush your teeth first then have breakfast, have breakfast and then brush your teeth, and the answer to that is usually to actually brush your teeth first and after as well if you can wait about 30 minutes. 

And that is sort of also dependent on what you eat. If it is more carbohydrate heavy, it is really important to wait that 30 minutes for your oral environment to naturally remineralize and kind of neutralize the acidity. So yeah, I am not sure if that answers your question, if it is along the same lines of what you were asking. 

Shawn O'Hara: Yeah, it does. So about 30 minutes after eating is when we should brush then. 

Steph: And before. 

Shawn O'Hara: But I mean, I guess before lunch or any other meal, half hour after. 

Steph: You can. It is more important first thing in the morning because they have been sort of repopulating overnight to a larger degree, right, versus if you have already interrupted that cycle first thing in the morning when you wake up. By lunchtime they will not have as much time to get more pathogenic. 

Shawn O'Hara: What about teeth whitening? It has become very popular. What do you think? 

Namrita: We love our whitening appointments because the instant confidence boost that most patients get immediately after the appointment is just so rewarding to see. It is a fairly quick and easy process. It just can really enhance confidence. We use the Philips Zoom product and we chose it because it is only distributed to dental offices, dental professionals. 

There are other aesthetic offices that offer whitening, but we are not sure how regulated it is, where they are getting their products from, if they have the dental knowledge to distinguish between someone who has a crown on their front tooth or a filling or active decay. So not to minimize that whitening can be offered in other settings, however we just really strongly encourage clients to book in a dental office. It is about an hour long process and we, again, we make it very comfortable. You can sit in a massage chair during the appointment. 

Often you just need one appointment a year, depending on how much staining food and beverage you consume. The results do last about a year. 

Shawn O'Hara: Oh, so it is better to go to somebody who knows what they are doing then, rather than who was trained in a 15 minute, being shown by somebody. Okay. 

Steph: The other thing, just to quickly add to what Namrita said, is that if you kind of work it out, return-on-investment-wise, it ends up being quite affordable because you are getting the results, the maximum whiteness that your teeth could ever become with a product like Zoom. You could use white strips, you might get a satisfactory result and be okay with it, but you have to do it more often, and you will not get your teeth to their maximum whiteness. 

And that varies between individuals. There is a shade guide that we assess with at the beginning. So someone may only go two shades, but maybe they were already at the top end of the shade guide to start. 

Shawn O'Hara: So shade guide. So it may not necessarily be, I do not know if I would say pure white, sparkling white, white as a piece of paper, but different people have different shades, I guess. 

Steph: Everyone will have a different end result for them, but they will always go whiter and brighter. 

Shawn O'Hara: Neat. But tell me about myofunctional therapy. That is becoming popular. What is happening with that and what is it? 

Namrita: Myofunctional therapy can be a series of exercises to help train you to have proper resting tongue posture. That is important because it affects your whole jaw development. Nasal breathing is a must. A lot of times if your tongue is not in the right spot, you are going to breathe more through your mouth than your nose, and then that also affects your jaw development. 

So the therapy portion is just a series of exercises to train where the tongue should be sitting. 

Shawn O'Hara: So that can happen to anybody. 

Namrita: It can. 

Shawn O'Hara: Oh. 

Namrita: It is best to catch it in children to try and start the process as early as possible. It can be tied in with speech therapy and orthodontics. But there is a lot of correlation between adults with sleep apnea and just having myofunctional therapy as an adjunctive treatment. 

Shawn O'Hara: A mouth breather, which is sometimes referred to as a mouth breather, could be treated. 

Steph: Yes. Yes, definitely. And there are more mouth breathers probably than purely nasal breathers, unfortunately, so the demand is really high. 

Shawn O'Hara: There are proposed changes to BC's Health Professions Act, which are effectively erasing that designation and rolling everyone back into a single licensed dental hygienist category. What would that change, in very practical terms, for how you run Haven day-to-day, from the services you can offer to the way you make clinical decisions with your patients? 

Steph: Well, thankfully it will not change too much with the day-to-day operations. We will still be able to practice to our full scope. We will still be able to administer plain local anesthetic unsupervised and those sorts of things, and continue to run an independent dental hygiene practice. What it will mostly affect is how we typically draw a parallel between nurse practitioners and RNs and dental hygiene practitioners and registered dental hygienists, just to sort of illuminate the extra training and education that we had to do to earn that designation. 

Because they changed the category name from the 365 day exempt to dental hygiene practitioner only in 2020, it was sort of just starting to kind of gain traction in the general public. It would have been nice to have had more time to get people on board and understanding what the differences are. Now, if everyone is a licensed dental hygienist, the public is unaware of any further education, which should be available to a patient potentially choosing their dental hygiene provider. Right? So quite frustrating. 

Also, it was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, not to be dramatic, to earn our dental hygiene practitioner status, as well as costly. For a brand new dental hygiene grad to kind of be granted a similar status upon graduation from a diploma program just feels a little bit unjust. I think the bottom line is trying to increase access to care. However, Namrita and I are very grateful we had a lot of years working with great dentists and learning from them, and maybe working with some not so great dentists and learning what we would want to do ourselves and what we would not want to do. 

Just the responsibilities, I cannot imagine a brand new dental hygiene grad, no offense to any, myself included, opening up a practice and just throwing the doors open and bringing people in. There would be a lot of liability issues. I do not know financially how anybody would be able to do that. Thankfully our day-to-day really will not be affected too much. 

Shawn O'Hara: It is interesting that the provincial government would make that change because they have been termed an activist government, and a lot of the regulations are designed to protect the public, but if the public does not quite know what they are getting, that would seem that it does not protect them. 

Steph: Exactly. When we were able to give feedback to the college, there was a submission period. It was very short. Also, they did not give us a lot of notice for when we had time to submit, so it was too short to try to lobby friends and family who were in support or other colleagues. It technically has not taken effect. It will in April, but again, we keep getting notifications from the college saying it is sort of a done deal, do not think we can really kind of fight against it, which is really disheartening. 

Shawn O'Hara: Yeah, it might be a down-the-road type of thing to be able to go in and change. So that means you are now being pushed into advocacy work that you were not expecting. What does that look like for you two as working clinicians trying to keep your young practice afloat, and how does it impact you bringing in patients? 

Namrita: It is nice to be able to tell patients that we are dental hygiene practitioners. I think it increases their level of confidence in us because independent hygiene is not as widely known in BC as it is in perhaps Alberta and Ontario, where it has been allowed a lot longer. A lay person says, oh, you can have your own office, and we can very proudly say, yes, we can. We have the designation behind us to be able to do that. 

Again, like Steph said, the designation was not easy to attain, so to have it taken away is the hardest part of it all. We are very welcoming of increasing access to care. So if a new grad is potentially able to just set up an office and work independently, that is great, but to have our status removed is the hardest part of it all. 

I am not sure how much more we can advocate. We do not want to just give up, but it seems like it will be implemented and there is not much more we can do about it. 

Shawn O'Hara: Or eventual change in legislation. Well, maybe we will have to have you back as things progress, and we can cover more of what is going on or not going on with that. 

Namrita: Yeah. 

Steph: We would love that. 

Shawn O'Hara: How can people find out about you, which geographic area do you serve, and how can they book? 

Namrita: We are located in the heart of White Rock, really close to the White Rock, South Surrey border, across from Peace Arch Hospital, but we do have patients that drive from all over the Lower Mainland to come see us, which is awesome. You can book online through our website or you can give us a call. We have an Instagram page where you can watch educational and comedic videos. 

Steph: Our phone number is 236-547-0330, and our Instagram handle is @HavenDHWhitening. We have a Facebook page as well, just under Haven Dental Studio, I believe. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great, thank you. My guests today have been Namrita Sandhu and Stephanie McKinnell, who are the co-founders and practitioners at Haven Dental Hygiene and Whitening in White Rock, BC. Thank you so much for being on my podcast today. 

Steph: Thanks for having us, Shawn. 

Namrita: Your podcast is wonderful. It really does bring a lot of awareness. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great. Thank you. And that is a wrap.

Links

Haven Dental Hygiene and Whitening
Phone: 236-547-0330
Instagram: @HavenDHWhitening
Facebook: Haven Dental Studio