Dental hygiene faculty, students attend 2024 TDHA Conference

UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry’s dental hygiene faculty and students recently shined amongst their peers in early February at the 82nd Annual Texas Dental Hygienists’ Association Conference in San Marcos, Texas.

Both students and faculty received awards and scholarships from the TDHA during the conference, held Feb. 1-3 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton San Marcos Hotel Conference Center.

The Dental Hygiene Class of 2024 was represented by awardees Nghiep (Lucas) Ly, B.J. Long Memorial Scholarship recipient; Priscilla Tovar, Heartland Dental Scholarship recipient; and Saima Valliani, 2024 Outstanding Student Dental Hygienist in Texas Award recipient. Along with these students, faculty member Khairunisa Hashmani, RDH, EdD, was awarded the 2024 Procter & Gamble Teaching Excellence Award.

In addition, two groups of students placed in the conference’s poster presentation competition, including second-place winners Alaa Eddine Zamzam, Eric Arroyo, and Ly, with “Renew Your Smile with Stem Cells,” and third-place winners Kelly Dang, Yordi Neguisse, and Valliani with “AI in Dentistry: Detecting Alveolar Bone Loss.”

Students from the Dental Hygiene Class of 2025 also received honors at the conference’s educational sessions and game shows. Their School of Dentistry promotional video garnered third-place honors, while the students’ lip sync performance stole the show to earn first place.

First-year dental hygiene students also sold t-shirts at the conference marketplace to raise funds for their future graduation banquet.

Faculty members Raha Naderi, RDH, MEd; Theresa Dufrene, RDH, BS; and Hashmani served as TDHA delegates to help ensure the needs and interests of dental hygienists across the state are represented and taken into account in the decision-making process.