 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |
What We Do
Your Special Smiles PLLC is a dental practice dedicated to improving the quality of life for adults who have special needs and geriatric patients who have limited mobility through improved oral health. Your Special Smiles PLLC does this through three pillars: Advocacy, Access to Care, and Education. Peruse our website to find educational videos and resources, and to learn more specific information on our programs and providers.
Improving Access to Care: Hospital Dentistry
Our hospital program was the very first program we started. Founded in 2015 by Dr. Brooke, our goal was that patients in South Central Idaho would not have to wait months and travel to Boise or Salt Lake City for dentistry under general anesthesia. Dr. Dave Seegmiller and Dr. Dave McClusky, Ms. Amber Veenstra, and Ms. Dawn Soto were instrumental for these initial steps.
Through a partnership with the St. Luke’s Magic Valley Health Foundation, we have been able to raise over $35,000 to provide St. Luke's Jerome and St. Luke's Magic Valley with instruments needed to regularly treat adults dental needs under general anesthesia.
Some of our first major donors were: The Twin Falls Health Initiative Trust, Idaho Power, Walmart, Idaho Dental Foundation, Glanbia, Worst, Fitzgerald and Stover, Small Horse, the College of Southern Idaho, and Rotary Clubs. There were also other generous private donors.
Your Special Smiles PLLC has quickly evolved to offer a more comprehensive health program through partnering with various physicians and specialists. Drs. Dave McClusky, Josh Kern, Nicole Ruske, and Catherine Doyle have all been very helpful in regularly integrating medical services into our cases. We are happy to work with our patient's primary care providers whenever possible.
Some of our favorite concurrent services have been: baclofen pump placement, ear cleanings, eye exams, skin biopsies, hemorrhoid banding, pap smear, toenail removal, IUD placement, and blood draws.
To find more details, see on our Hospital Dentistry Page . We are also working with Family Health Services Idaho and other dental providers, to provide compressive dental homes for our hospital patients. If you want to partner with us please contact us for details. We believe that comprehensive and ongoing preventative treatment is important for long term success and we are happy to work as a team with other providers to make that happen.
.jpg)
Current Location for Surgeries is St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center Operating Room: Pole Line Rd, Twin Falls, ID 83301
Improving Access to Care: Portable Dentistry
Your Special Smiles PLLC started a portable clinic in 2018 to serve patients living in long-term care and group homes.
This expansion was done with the help of: Dr. Richard Bailey, the CSI Small Business Development Center, the Idaho Dental Foundation, a loan from First Federal Bank, and generous private donors.
This clinic was set out to break down two significant barriers to care for this population.
-
Limited mobility can make transport to the dental office difficult and stressful, leading to less successful appointments.
-
Some patients are intimidated by the traditional dental office environment leading to less successful appointments.
-
By bringing services to the patients, we decreased the stress of transport as well as changed the setting to less intimidating. We saw increased cooperation and considered this a success.
At this point Dr. Brooke, Mariana Placencia RDA, and Vanda Johnson retired RDH turned RDA were our portable team. We offered exams, cleanings, fillings, SDF, and fluoride varnish.
In 2019 Your Special Smiles PLLC was awarded a HRSA Sub-Grant from the Department of Health and Welfare Division of Public Health. This enabled us to purchase equipment and hire two expanded access dental hygienists to provide portable hygiene services and gather teledental information. Holly Jones RDH-EA and Jingjing Qian RDH-EA joined our team. They chose our equipment and built our hygiene program.
Currently we are at capacity with this program. We are working with Creekside Care Center in Jerome (Assisted Living) , Desano Place (Assisted Living and Memory Care) in Jerome, and Communicare (ICF-IDD). We occasionally take call for Clearwater Care Center (ICF-IDD).
Before the pandemic our wonderful hygienists would go out to the facilities at least every 6 months and provide hygiene services such as professional cleanings, application of fluoride varnish, application of SDF, taking radiographs and gathering photos and videos for teledental exams. Dr. Brooke would then review the information the hygienists gathered and decide if she needed to go out to the home, and what she would need to bring.
During the pandemic we relied on telehealth, administrators and caregivers. We are excited to be getting back out there.
.jpg)
Improving Home Oral Hygiene:
Assisted Oral Hygiene/Guided Oral Hygiene
After spending considerable time in various facilities, we realized that one of the biggest problems with oral health was the struggle for adequate daily oral hygiene. We met a wide variety of caregivers, who all seemed to have one thing in common, they were BUSY.
These caregivers work very hard to meet the needs of the residents, yet when we see the resident in the dentist office we often are guilty of unfairly blaming them for the resident's poor oral condition. We then thought, what if we stepped in and provided oral hygiene services? What if our assistant could go in multiple times per week and help with oral hygiene?
We acted on that and in 2019 we hired our first Oral Hygiene Assistant, Ms. Savanna Hendren who was a hygiene student at CSI at the time. We trained her with PowerPoint and video, then Dr. Brooke went out with her to see all the residents who were participating in this pilot program. After she completed 10 hours of direct supervision, and Dr. Brooke felt comfortable with her abilities, she was given a written exam. She was then able to go out and help the pilot program participants without Dr. Brooke.
Savanna was brushing, flossing, using proxy brushes, and applying Rx toothpaste to the teeth. She had no professional tools or equipment, she simply helped the patients use their own home hygiene products. She used a documentation system that Dr. Brooke developed in 2015 called the Your Special Smiles Oral Hygiene Ability Spectrum, which acknowledges that all residents may need different levels of help and encourages independence when possible.
Savanna was a leader in developing this program. She formed relationships with the residents, helped edit our documentation, and she made a huge difference in the residents oral health.
When the pandemic hit, our facilities went on lockdown. We were not able to continue providing this service, but the results that we had seen were so great, we did not want to abandon it. We had to pivot and we did. We needed someone on the inside and we decided to work with off-the-clock caregivers. Our first three caregivers were Sandra, Javier, and Carolina from Creekside Care Center. The problem was training. How could we provide training, when we could not see the patients? The answer was teledentistry.
Jingjing Qian RDH, EA took the lead on this. She helped us design our Guided Oral Hygiene program and she trained the caregivers using teledental technology during the cleaning sessions. Jingjing would watch while the caregiver would clean the resident's teeth, then they would use the intraoral camera to see if any spots were missed. Jingjing then made suggestions on how to best to get the areas missed.
As the pandemic progressed Ms. Carolina Lopez CNA took a leadership role in this program and works with Jingjing three hours per week to provide these services to the residents participating in the pilot. Jingjing won a national award for her work in this program. Once successful, we spread the program to DeSano Place.
Ms. Alicia McMurtry, a student in the CSI hygiene program was trained by Dr. Brooke and Jingjing both in Assisted Oral Hygiene and Guided Oral Hygiene. She learned quickly and partnered with Ms. Maria Santana CNA, who is an excellent caregiver at Desano Place. Now these services are being delivered regularly at both facilities. Our current CSI student is Ms. Ivy Burgess.
A similar program is also being developed at Idaho State University with their hygiene program under the direction of Ms. Rachelle Williams.
.jpg)
Improving Skills and Knowledge for Dental Professionals, Students, and Caregivers
Your Special Smiles PLLC is dedicated to spreading our information in multiple different forums. See our " Book Dr. Brooke" page to see how you can get Dr. Brooke to present at your event. Her simulation course will leave learners with a new understanding of what it really FEELS like to be one of our patients. She also does hands on courses for minimally invasive dentistry and teledentistry. To see our full list of offerings as well as Dr. Brooke's Speaker Packet, see our "Book Dr. Brooke" page. All of Dr. Brooke's handouts for courses she has given are available on our "Handouts and Documents" page. This is also where you will find our "Toothies" guide for patients taking teledental images with the i-phone and the paperwork for the "Your Special Smiles Oral Hygiene Ability Spectrum".
We are developing a library of full length Continuing Education courses which will be available for a nominal fee. These can be found on our "Full Length CE" page. We also have free short educational videos available on our "Short Clips an Tips" page. We recognize that there are many other good resources out there, and to make them more accessible to you we have designed a page labeled, "Other Good Resources" where we have links to many other great resources for learning that were developed outside of our practice. Some feature Dr. Brooke, some feature her friends, and others are just things that she likes and thinks will be valuable for you.
Advocacy
We are passionate advocates for our patients. Visit our Advocacy Page to learn issues we are working on currently. If you have an issue you think we should be aware of, please contact us. We only take formal stances on issues in our area of expertise (oral health) or issues that indirectly have an effect on oral health. We are not a political group nor do we support a single political party. We have regular contact with our local legislators to help in areas where we have expertise.
Television:
KMVT 11 Fit and Well Moment Sponsored by St. Luke's
May 18, 2018
Dr. Brooke discusses our Hospital Program
Idaho News Channel 6: Wellness Wednesday: COVID-19 and Dental Care
December 16,2020
Dr. Brooke discusses masks and oral health
Podcasts and Radio:
NPR Boise State Public Radio "Idaho Matters" with Gemma Gaudette
December 17, 2019
Dr. Brooke talks about our program and tips for finding a dentist for your loved ones who have special needs
Dentistry Gone Wild: Teledentistry, Mobile Dentistry, Special Needs Care, and Guided Oral Hygiene
January 11, 2021
Dr. Brooke and Holly talk about working with patients who have special needs and our Guided Oral Hygiene Program
What We Do
Your Special Smiles PLLC is a dental practice dedicated to improving the quality of life for adults who have special needs and geriatric patients who have limited mobility through improved oral health. Your Special Smiles PLLC does this through three pillars: Advocacy, Access to Care, and Education. Peruse our website to find educational videos and resources, and to learn more specific information on our programs and providers.
Improving Access to Care: Hospital Dentistry
Our hospital program was the very first program we started. Founded in 2015 by Dr. Brooke, our goal was that patients in South Central Idaho would not have to wait months and travel to Boise or Salt Lake City for dentistry under general anesthesia. Dr. Dave Seegmiller and Dr. Dave McClusky, Ms. Amber Veenstra, and Ms. Dawn Soto were instrumental for these initial steps.
Through a partnership with the St. Luke’s Magic Valley Health Foundation, we have been able to raise over $35,000 to provide St. Luke's Jerome and St. Luke's Magic Valley with instruments needed to regularly treat adults dental needs under general anesthesia.
Some of our first major donors were: The Twin Falls Health Initiative Trust, Idaho Power, Walmart, Idaho Dental Foundation, Glanbia, Worst, Fitzgerald and Stover, Small Horse, the College of Southern Idaho, and Rotary Clubs. There were also other generous private donors.
Your Special Smiles PLLC has quickly evolved to offer a more comprehensive health program through partnering with various physicians and specialists.
Drs. Dave McClusky, Josh Kern, Nicole Ruske, and Catherine Doyle were all very helpful in integrating medical services into our cases. We are happy to work with our patient's primary care providers whenever possible.
Some examples of concurrent services are: baclofen pump placement, ear cleanings, eye exams, skin biopsies, hemorrhoid banding, pap smear, toenail removal, IUD placement, and blood draws.
To find more details, see on our Hospital Dentistry Page . We are also working with Family Health Services Idaho and other dental providers, to provide compressive dental homes for our hospital patients. If you want to partner with us please contact us for details. We believe that comprehensive and ongoing preventative treatment is important for long term success and we are happy to work as a team with other providers to make that happen.
We do not treat patients who do not have a dental home. Do not worry if you don't have a dental home, we will find one for you.
Current Location for Surgeries is St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center Operating Room: Pole Line Rd, Twin Falls, ID 83301
Improving Access to Care: Portable Dentistry
Your Special Smiles PLLC started a portable clinic in 2018 to serve patients living in long-term care and group homes.
This expansion was done with the help of: Dr. Richard Bailey, the CSI Small Business Development Center, the Idaho Dental Foundation, a loan from First Federal Bank, and generous private donors.
This clinic was set out to break down two significant barriers to care for this population.
-
Limited mobility can make transport to the dental office difficult
-
Some patients are intimidated by the traditional dental office environment
-
By bringing services to the patients, we decreased the stress of transport as well as changed the setting to less intimidating. We saw increased cooperation in some of our patients and considered this a success.
At this point Dr. Brooke, Mariana Placencia RDA, and Vanda Johnson retired RDH turned RDA were our portable team. We offered exams, cleanings, fillings, SDF, and fluoride varnish.
In 2019 Your Special Smiles PLLC was awarded a HRSA Sub-Grant from the Department of Health and Welfare Division of Public Health. This enabled us to purchase equipment and hire two expanded access dental hygienists to provide portable hygiene services and gather teledental information. Holly Jones RDH-EA and Jingjing Qian RDH-EA joined our team. They chose our equipment and built our hygiene program.
Currently we are at capacity with this program. We are working with Creekside Care Center in Jerome (Assisted Living) , and Desano Place (Assisted Living and Memory Care) in Jerome to provide portable preventative services and limited treatment options. In partnership with the FHS Advanced Delivery Dental clinic, we also take calls for Communicare (ICF-IDD) in Jerome, ID.
Services include: professional cleanings, application of fluoride varnish, application of SDF, and taking radiographs, photos and videos for teledental exams. Dr. Brooke reviews the information the team gathered and decides if she needs to go out to the home, refer the patient to a practice, or monitor situations.
As most of our patients have complex medical/behavioral histories, prior to treatment, Dr. Brooke reviews histories and writes up modifications for the team.
Improving Home Oral Hygiene:
Assisted Oral Hygiene/Guided Oral Hygiene
After spending considerable time in various facilities, we realized that one of the biggest problems with oral health was the struggle for adequate daily oral hygiene. We met a wide variety of caregivers, who all seemed to have one thing in common, they were BUSY.
These caregivers work very hard to meet the needs of the residents, yet when we see the resident in the dentist office we often are guilty of unfairly blaming them for the resident's poor oral condition. We decided that as the dental team, we wanted to play a more active role in daily oral hygiene.
In 2019 we hired our first Oral Hygiene Assistant, Ms. Savanna Hendren who was a hygiene student at CSI. We trained her with PowerPoint and video, then Dr. Brooke went out with her to see all the residents who were participating in this pilot program. After she completed 10 hours of direct supervision, she was given a written exam. After that, once she and Dr. Brooke were comfortable with it, she was then able to go out and help the pilot program participants on her own.
Savanna was brushing, flossing, using proxy brushes, and applying Rx toothpaste to the teeth. She had no professional tools or equipment, she simply helped the patients use their own home hygiene products. She used a documentation system that Dr. Brooke developed in 2015 called the Your Special Smiles Oral Hygiene Ability Spectrum, which acknowledges that all residents may need different levels of help and encourages independence when possible.
Savanna was a leader in developing this program. She formed relationships with the residents, helped edit our documentation, and she made a huge difference in the residents oral health.
When the pandemic hit, our facilities went on lockdown. We were not able to continue providing this service, but the results that we had seen were so great, we did not want to abandon it. We needed someone on the inside and we decided to work with off-the-clock caregivers. Our first three caregivers were Sandra, Javier, and Carolina from Creekside Care Center. Since we were not able to train onsite due to lockdown, we utilized teledentistry.
Jingjing Qian RDH, EA took the lead on this. She helped us design our Guided Oral Hygiene program and she trained the caregivers using teledental technology. Jingjing would watch while the caregiver would clean the resident's teeth, then they would use the intraoral camera to see if any spots were missed. Jingjing then made suggestions on how to best to get the areas missed.
As the pandemic progressed Ms. Carolina Lopez CNA took a leadership role in this program and works with Jingjing three hours per week to provide these services to the residents participating in the pilot. Jingjing won a national award for her work in this program. Once successful, we spread the program to DeSano Place.
Ms. Alicia McMurtry, a student in the CSI hygiene program was trained by Dr. Brooke and Jingjing both in Assisted Oral Hygiene and Guided Oral Hygiene. She learned quickly and partnered with Ms. Maria Santana CNA, who is an excellent caregiver at Desano Place. Now these services are being delivered regularly at both facilities.
After Alicia graduated, Ms. Ivy Burgess took over and helped us with a hybrid approach utilizing both in-person and teledentistry. Ivy has now graduated and McKenna has joined the team.
A similar program is also being developed at Idaho State University with their hygiene program under the direction of Ms. Rachelle Williams. She has done a study, submitted an article and we are anxiously waiting on the publication of that article.
Improving Skills and Knowledge for Dental Professionals, Students, and Caregivers
Your Special Smiles PLLC is dedicated to spreading our information in multiple different forums. See our " Book Dr. Brooke" page to see how you can get Dr. Brooke to present at your event. Her simulation course will leave learners with a new understanding of what it really FEELS like to be one of our patients. She also does hands on courses for minimally invasive dentistry and teledentistry. To see our full list of offerings as well as Dr. Brooke's Speaker Packet, see our "Book Dr. Brooke" page. All of Dr. Brooke's handouts for courses she has given are available on our "Handouts and Documents" page. This is also where you will find our "Toothies" guide for patients taking teledental images with the i-phone and the paperwork for the "Your Special Smiles Oral Hygiene Ability Spectrum".
We are developing a library of full length Continuing Education courses which will be available for a nominal fee. These can be found on our "Full Length CE" page. We also have free short educational videos available on our "Short Clips an Tips" page. We recognize that there are many other good resources out there, and to make them more accessible to you we have designed a page labeled, "Other Good Resources" where we have links to many other great resources for learning that were developed outside of our practice. Some feature Dr. Brooke, some feature her friends, and others are just things that she likes and thinks will be valuable for you.
Advocacy
We are passionate advocates for our patients. Visit our Advocacy Page to learn issues we are working on currently. If you have an issue you think we should be aware of, please contact us. We only take formal stances on issues in our area of expertise (oral health) or issues that indirectly have an effect on oral health. We are not a political group nor do we support a single political party. We have regular contact with our local legislators to help in areas where we have expertise. We also advocate for our patients for policies in organized dentistry. We encourage membership and participation in organized dentistry. Dr. Brooke is a member of: ADA, ISDA, SCIDS, IOHA, AGD, AADMD, SCDA, AAC, NNOHA, and AMTA.
Our Awesome Team
Every member of our team is a great person. We select only people who are passionate and care deeply about our patients. Each of our team members is featured on our "Meet Our Team" page. Some have written their own bios and if CV's are available we will post them as well. We hire a student from the College of Southern Idaho dental hygiene program for a one year position their senior year. To see our past students, see the "Hygiene Student Hall of Fame". We celebrate those who have retired from working with us in our "Retired Jerseys" page.
Your Special Smiles PLLC In The Media
Television:
KMVT 11 Fit and Well Moment Sponsored by St. Luke's : May 18, 2018
Dr. Brooke discusses our Hospital Program
KTVB 7 Interview with Brian Holmes : August 1, 2019
Dr. Brooke discusses our mobile clinic
Idaho News Channel 6: Wellness Wednesday: COVID-19 and Dental Care
December 16,2020
Dr. Brooke discusses masks and oral health
KMVT 11: Behind the Business: Family Health Services Advanced Delivery Dental Clinic
September 28, 2022
This segment highlights the health center where Dr. Brooke works, click the button below to go to the site an watch the news segment.
Podcasts and Radio:
NPR Boise State Public Radio "Idaho Matters" with Gemma Gaudette
December 17, 2019
Dr. Brooke talks about our program and tips for finding a dentist for your loved ones who have special needs
Dentistry Gone Wild: Teledentistry, Mobile Dentistry, Special Needs Care, and Guided Oral Hygiene
January 11, 2021
Dr. Brooke and Holly talk about our program with Sonya and Melissa
HAPPY PATIENTS & CAREGIVERS
"You're a good doctor, Dr. Brooke, because you helped me a lot with my teeth."
- Sasha Hardman
"I can't say enough about ... Dr. Brooke — how well he was treated ... they made him so comfortable." - Lita Summers & Cynthia Rodriguez
“Mom, can I work here? [at Your Special Smiles]” - John Murray
FIND US
Address:
We provide services at:
Hospital Cases: St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center
Contracted Facilities in Jerome:
Desano Place, Creekside Care, Communicare.
Jerome, ID 83338
(208) 859-8449 - text only
Hours
There is nothing regular about us...
We have no regular hours
Dr. Brooke also provides dental services at Family Health Services Idaho. She is the dentist at their Advanced Delivery Dental Clinic. This is a unique clinic that focuses on treating adults who have special healthcare needs. This is a more traditional clinic. They take calls Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 8:30am- 7:00pm. Their number is (208) 737-6778
Mandatory Legal Stuff
Pricing for medical records will not exceed the cost to print the records and employee time spent assembling and printing the records, and shipping of the records. Pricing will vary based on how many pages need printing and if requested in color. Color printing will cost $1.00/single side and black and white will cost $0.15 per single side. If shipping is requested shipping will be charged to the patient. If patient would like on a jump drive or CD we will include the cost of the jump drive or disk. We are not able to use patient's memory cards/disks for security puroses. Records can be sent to a secure email with proper permission for only nominal cost.