Crystal: mobile can get its own bad rap because people think that you're. Taking somebody around with a couple s scalers and a, a fluoride varnish and you're, thinking you could go save the world like that. And we're so much more than that if someone could get better care going somewhere else. That's what I'd want for them. And I will tell you that I see all of my family, my family see smiles across Montana because why would I have them go anywhere else this is good enough for my patients, it has to be good enough for me and my family.
Hello everyone, it's Anne Duffy and welcome to the Just DeW It podcast. I am so happy that you're with me today and I'm really excited 'cause I have a very, very dear friend. An amazing young lady as my guest today. But before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about her.
Anne: Crystal Spring. R-D-H-B-S-L-A-P is a nationally recognized leader in mobile and public health dentistry. Founder of Smiles across Montana, she advances access to care, medical, dental, integration, education, and innovation. An award-winning clinician and speaker crystal influences policy. Practice and professional development nationwide.
Please help me welcome crystal Spring, how are you?
Crystal: Hi, I'm, I'm wonderful and I can't believe we're finally doing this. We've been talking about this for a long time.
Anne: I know it. I know we talk all the time, but as we were talking before I hit record for 20 minutes, I said, we need to hit the record button.
We should do this every week, crystal, because we could really have some great discussions and I think make an impact on the world.
Crystal: I would definitely make an impact. like I was saying earlier, due has just been such a big part of my story and everything that I'm doing so thankful for you.
Anne: Thankful for you too. And I remember the award of distinction. We started this the last time we tried to record, when you received the award of distinction at the Gaylord and this is an award from Sun Star for, this one of the highest awards in dental hygiene you can get. And I remember seeing you on stage and saying to myself, I need to get to know this young lady.
And here we are. Fast friends, good roomies at the conferences. We've had some best times doing those things, you're such an, icon in our industry with, what you've done in Montana. Tell me how that all started, crystal, what even motivated you to develop this mindset and this company that really Yeah.
Crystal: No.
Anne: Does so much for others.
Crystal: yeah, I will start with just 2019 was such a huge breakout year for me. I'd never been to RDH under one roof. I had never met Jackie Sanders, who I think I've told so many people. You and Jackie have both been so, just played such huge piece in my development and through mentorship and just.
I mean, I'll call it mentorship, but at the end of the day, it's been so much love and I'm just so appreciative for people like you, the both of you in my life, that whole. Award. I had no idea the significance. It was such a huge deal and I was so blessed. I brought my sister and a couple of my best friends and they did this whole stark quilt ceremony.
It was one of the coolest things I've ever had happen. And a stark quilt ceremony, I should maybe back up, I grew up on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, and that's how you honor people and. So many people that I grew up with actually had helped to have that star quilt made, and it was a really huge deal.
At first, I thought my friends were like playing a joke on me because they're not people I would normally invite to. Something like that, but that was amazing. So thank you for bringing that up. But my story kind of starts out, I grew up on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. I think that when people think about Montana, they think about the mountains and Yellowstone.
I definitely am lucky enough to live that now, but I grew up in, we used to call it West Dakota, so if you can think Canada slash not the cool Canada either, like Saskatchewan meets North Dakota that's where I grew up. So where access to care, and especially access to dental care, it's non-existent.
It's a harder life up there. We think there's cool places and then there's Northeastern Montana. But I feel so blessed that I was able to grow up there. I feel lucky in all the things that I've done. I've started smiles across Montana with just another hygienist. Just wanting to make a difference, seeing that there were so many people who were going without care and they weren't just.
People, they were people that I knew and loved that were going without dental care. And as dental professionals, we all know like how important it is that we all have access and there's. Access problems throughout the entire country, but in these rural areas, you are putting on a whole nother level because not only is there not enough providers, there's nowhere to go or that somewhere to go might be 300 miles away and.
For instance, when I grew up, the nearest pediatric dental office was 300 miles away. I know it sounds insane, but that was the truth. It was in Billings, Montana. I lived in this little town called Poplar, and it was 300 miles away. That's just incredible.
Anne: Wow.
Crystal: Yeah. Like
Anne: that is incredible. Yeah. We just take it for granted that there's a dentist on every corner or something like that.
Yeah. Wow.
Crystal: And, and I love that there's a dentiston every corner in a lot of places, but we know right now there's only half of Americans go to the dentist on a regular basis. And I've learned so much about myself through strength Finders and the work that I've done with do that. I know that I'm the type of person who.
It just wasn't fair and I decided I was gonna do something about it. so in my credentials, LAP means limited access permit. I got that permit because my grandma's, two of them, had both finished their lives out in nursing facilities and. I found out that we could go in as dental hygienists and actually work in these, nursing facilities.
So I decided that I was gonna do something about it. I applied for a grant. I got $5,000 from the American Dental Hygiene Association. I met a dentist in, I like to tell everybody I met. Back alley and bought all this equipment, but it was this really bougie coffee shop in Bozeman. he was no longer gonna be able to go into the facility, so I bought like all this equipment off of him because it was really important that I just didn't go in there with a scaler and a spit cup.
I, bought a mobile chair, a portable unit. I bought a Cavitron off a dental hygiene student, you know, all this portable equipment because it was important to me that I didn't just bring care, but I brought excellent care to these patients and that's where my journey started.
And then everything was going along great. I was still working in private practice and one day on Facebook, one of my first cousins that lives up on the Fort Peck reservation. She has an autoimmune disease and it's really important that she takes good care of her health. And I saw a Facebook post that she'd waited all day at Indian Health Service in line to be seen and wasn't seen that day.
And that really sparked something because it's one thing to think things are going on. maybe you can ignore it if you didn't know the person, but this was like my first cousin who didn't have access to care, and at that point I. Tried to work for the government or Indian Health Service on a part-time basis.
I live 460 miles away from my hometown now, takes about a day to get there I couldn't commit, we weren't gonna move. So I actually was able. To, I found a friend from home. His name was Kenny Smoker, and he worked for the Fort Peck Tribes and their tribal health at that time, and he brought me up there.
I went and checked out some school-based clinics that they were starting, and that's where I got started. I remember the first day I went in and I saw the need and I saw what it was able to do too, like the difference I would be able to make. And I remember calling my husband at lunch crying, saying, oh my goodness, I'm gonna come up here every, month for the rest of my life.
And it was definitely life changing and that's how I got started.
Anne: Oh my gosh. I've known you so long and I've never actually heard the origin story there, and that's so beautiful. I have goosebumps. Okay, back up just a bit. Why did you grow up on the reservation? 'cause I can't even, I mean, I'm from Dayton, Ohio.
I, I just can't even fathom that. Right? I mean, were your parents in the tribe?
Crystal: So a lot of my cousins are Native American. Um, My grandparents, when they came to America, they homesteaded in a place called Homestead, Montana. Okay. And I don't even know if that's really even a town anymore.
One of my grandpas owned a John Deere implement and my other grandpa owned, Hey, John's Bar. Yep. I thought my grandpa's name was, Hey John, for the longest time. Hey John, gimme another beard. Like, so that's, that's how I grew up. And yeah, my family is definitely rooted in that area. Always
Anne: had special
Crystal: oh my,
Anne: that's so cool.
I mean, I think, you know, it's so funny how your faith, God placed you there so you could make this difference and that your heart is so. Tender I can't imagine not being able to get dental care and just stand in line all day.
and, and I'm sure there were a lot of people in that line that had toothaches and were in a lot of pain and couldn't be seen. And you just, in America, I mean, how can that. Still be happening.
Crystal: And so, and it's still happening. It, it's happening all the time. I talk to people about it all the time.
not right, it's not fair. I've actually thought a couple times, like, what would it be like if I just didn't care so much? you know, we know what our strengths are and man, if I could just unsee it is pretty much what I would have to do to not wanna do something about it.
Maybe that's how I talk about things when I'm being weak or when things have been hard because I did start this program with just another hygienist. I didn't think that there would be dentists that would wanna help us because there's this huge divide sometimes in America between your dentist and your hygienist.
I will say that that's one of my biggest goals is to bring that back together. Like we are all good people. We all want what's best for people, and I've met so many amazing dentists through, do I do have to say that? Mm-hmm. Like I, that was the first time I remember really feeling supported by a dentist.
And from that, I have so many dentists that help our program, want to help our program. Dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists. We now hire community healthcare workers. we're hiring behavioral health specialists. We're like looking at all these things and. it started with just being around like-minded people and having an open table to see that we're not really against each other.
we all want the same things.
Anne: Yeah. we're stronger together and
Crystal: definitely
Anne: we have other gifts. Right. We talked about that with your strengths and as a matter of fact, woo, positivity, communication, activator, ideation, Well, we're twins for starters just about Yeah. but the ideation gives you that strategy and just you see the possibilities Crystal, and it's a gift that you have that you've seen the possibilities and just with one hygienist and now you've got mobile units, you've got over almost 30 people working for you and.
Across the country, and then you're actually out there even getting more awareness. And I think that is a beautiful thing that people wanna help because sometimes we don't know what to do or how to do it, but you're spreading that. Across the country, in bigger places. your voice is being heard, which is, amazing.
Crystal: thank you for that. I, I meet so many people in dental because I know that we know dental is so expensive but we all know how necessary it is, and I feel like dentistry just gets such a bad rap and there's so many people who want to give back and want to do something. You know, I find that those people somehow find their way to me, and I'm so thankful and grateful for that I feel like I have so much support.
Sometimes I feel like people treat me like I'm some type of saint and I'm not, you know, I'm just somebody who, like, I just told you I wish I didn't care so much.
Anne: Don't say that because we, you have that in you and I know that that's hard because there's so much need. Right. I think that's where that comes from.
There's so much need out there, and your job in this arena will probably never be complete. Right. Until every person is seen and everybody gets the care they need. So that's enormous. That's an enormous mantle to carry.
Crystal: But there's so many other groups doing so many amazing things, and, and that's my next move is, you know, I'm coming together with other professionals who've done what I've done, and we know how to do it right.
mobile can get its own bad rap because people think that you're. Taking somebody around with a couple s scalers and a, a fluoride varnish and you're, thinking you could go save the world like that. And we're so much more than that and especially with what smiles across Montana and our.
Just dedication to excellence. 'cause it was never gonna be good enough if someone could get better care going somewhere else. That's what I'd want for them. And I will tell you that I see all of my family, my family see smiles across Montana because why would I have them go anywhere else when you know, wow if, this is good enough for my patients, it has to be good enough for me and my family.
And
Anne: That says a lot. I did not know that as well.
Crystal: Definitely, and what we see in mobile is my clinicians have to be better than other clinicians. They have to be forward thinking. They have to be open thinking, and really looking at people's whole health because a lot of times in mobile and rural settings, you are the only healthcare provider that might be seeing someone.
So it's been really important that we're not just looking at somebody's health history as a. Can I clean their teeth or not? it's never about that. It's like, what else is going on with this child or adult's body? Like what else can we be doing to help them? And you know, we might not have the specialists everywhere we go, but it's important to me that we're telling the patients what we found, whether they Care or not like they deserve to know what's going on. And I'm always amazed that especially some of these moms and grandmas man, how hard they will work to make these things happen for their kids. Hundreds of miles they'll drive and the money they'll raise. We don't have a lot of airway dentists in Montana and we had a young mom that called me up one day and her son had like severe tongue tie, needed, like a lot of airway work.
And there's really no one. In a lot of our areas.
typically people would say, well, there's no one there or you can't afford it. But this mom did a 50 50 fundraiser. Raise the money within a weekend to help pay for the treatment that her child would need, and even to get there, it was amazing.
Anne: Well, they say a mom will lift a car your child is, under it.
And I believe moms,moms will do whatever it takes you're helping that bridge the gap between what they need and what they can do. And a beautiful thing.
Crystal: tell me what a regular day looks like for the. Smiles across Montana. What does your team do? Tell me?
Oh, definitely. So we are mainly school-based. I would say about 90% of our patients are kids anywhere, one to 18. That's the 90% of what we do.
We're in nursing facilities in some areas, because, that's where I started out. We do some community events. We give back a lot, so. We see the teachers in some of the schools that we go to, especially if they don't have dental insurance or don't have any access. We have one mobile vehicle, but we're mostly portable and a lot of what people don't know the difference between portable and mobile.
Mm-hmm. So in mobile you have all of your portable equipment a lot of times, but it's on like a big trailer or a vehicle. We do have that. It just isn't that accessible for everyone and it costs so much to have the mobile portion of it. So essentially,
if you go to our website, you can kind of see we have these. Milwaukee tool chest that are on wheels that we just snap together and wheel it all in along with like our chairs and our, portable units that we use.
and those units have everything. So we use mouth watch cameras a lot, so we do a ton of teledentistry. We take x-rays. we're not taking panoramics or doing cone beams. I would say yet, I, I see that happening in the future. We do work with local dentists to get those things when we need 'em and for our referrals, but essentially we wheel an entire office into a school setting.
We've worked in everywhere. I've worked in the boys' locker room, that was probably my least favorite. I like the vestibule at. Some school better than I liked the boys' locker room. That was just not the best smelling. But we will work wherever. You know, we can set up anywhere and everywhere. And we do, you know, our units have pazos or Crons on 'em.
I mean, we just have everything that a dental hygienist would have. And then we also are doing dentistry as well. we do a lot around minimally invasive care, but we also offer restorative services. We try to send most people off to an area dentist because we're not there to put anybody outta business, but mm-hmm.
Sometimes there's just kids that won't be seen if we don't see 'em.
Anne: Wow. Your level of dental hygiene is Incredible compared to, what I experienced in the operatory.
Crystal: we try to be mainly minimally invasive. Okay. You know, especially when the parents aren't present, we're, not wanting to do any heroics. But when we do need to do something more and we can't refer them and they would need local anesthesia, I'm not a big fan of general sedation, so
Anne: Right.
Crystal: We don't do any of that. But when we do need local anesthesia, it's different permissions, but we are actually able to treat so many people through minimally invasive care. I'm gonna do a plug for this right now. There's gonna be a documentary coming out at the end of March that we're part of.
A lot of big hitters in dentistry are gonna be a part of this. It's called Invasive, and it's by a group called Chart House Films, and it just shows you how much you can do without actually having to remove tooth structure. Through remineralization. We use a lot of silver diamine fluoride. I absolutely love radon repair.
That's been a game changer in what we do. We use, um. An instrument called a synapse that can actually numb an area. And if you haven't tried that, I would not have it in my program if I wouldn't have experienced it on a trade show floor. People tested my tooth like cold tested it, I screamed, and then they took this wand, you know, on my tooth and gums for about 30 seconds and wanted to do it again.
I was like, heck no. But I let them and it didn't hurt, so We really try to be innovative too. You know, we're trying to move the needle forward, what's best for patients. I think that that's just the most important thing to me, is what is best for patients? Where are they best seen? So, We're mainly portable, but we also do have the mobile component for when we can't be.
And there are areas in Montana that we go to that maybe wouldn't be physically safe for people, like in a lot of poor communities. We've had exposed wires and stuff in rooms that we're at, and I'm like well, we should probably, this would be a good place to bring our trailer and things like that.
But for the most part it's portable. Portable's not exactly cheap either. I think each of our towers cost us around 80,000 and we get most stuff nonprofit pricing. Yeah, like we talked about it. Dentistry, even affordable dentistry is. There's a lot of go into it.
Anne: Yeah. I'm so proud of the fact that you've learned on your own really how to write grants and you've been able to be very persuasive in getting the grants.
doesn't seem like it should be that hard to get a grant for what you're doing, but you have to just keep persevering and you never give up, which is a big part of it. How did you learn how to do that?
Crystal: I couldn't stop what I was doing and it cost money and I didn't wanna do it subpar. I I wanted to do a really good job.
And so I, I don't wanna be negative at all, but I've cried in my head off when I haven't gotten a grant before, you know? Mm-hmm. And I've. went to this whole dark place of, you know, nobody cares, whatever, but you just learn from it and you grow so much. I sometimes see people come onto my team who I can see where I was five years ago, and really feel for them like Just because people aren't supporting our cause doesn't mean they're not still doing good things in this world, or that just because they don't wanna support us yet doesn't mean that we're not worth supporting, or no one ever will.
Anne: Yeah.
Crystal: I just feel like the belief was always bigger than me and it wasn't about me.
will say for the first few years, I really, if it wasn't for my husband and my family, I couldn't have done this, like my husband footed the bill for a long time. And you know, now we're doing great. We're actually sustainable and big things are happening and we're joining with other like-minded groups and a lot of them I've met through you and I'm just so thankful for that.
Anne: Well, we're so thankful for you. I just, am so. I'm proud to know you and the fact that you just have this resilience and this perseverance because it's, it is bigger than you and it is something that is also near and dear to your heart. It's interesting how, how I think in our community, in the Duke community, if there's a problem and they say this, give it to a woman to solve and.
You are one of those women that just has not given up and have just pushed through and, and the documentary sounds great. It'll spread the cause. It'll give us a heart. I mean, again, I don't. Even understand the enormity of what you're doing. Crystal, I have a better understanding today after this podcast, because you don't talk about the hard things so much.
You talk about goodness you're doing, but it, it's not easy. And if it were, if it were more people would be doing it. Yeah.
Crystal: And you know, I think coming and finding due and finding the people You know, at first I remember thinking like, what do I need all these other people for?
Mm-hmm. And now, like being the size that we are, we spend about $20,000 a year just ensuring our program, the people that I've met through do, who helped me figure it out ahead of time and these aren't people from due that I'm paying these premiums to, like You know, just all these people coming alongside me.
I was a dental hygienist by trade, you know, I have a bachelor's in dental hygiene. I don't have a business degree. I didn't even like to balance my own checkbook before I started doing this. And I've learned so much and become, so much smarter and More willing to learn than I ever thought it would be.
And it was out of necessity. But I think back to like the people that I meet that can actually help me and the people who've exposed things to me that I didn't even know that I needed help with. I feel like I'm doing all these plugs for do, but for me that was. Really what was important.
I think about all these young dentists, you know, running their own dental office. There's so much that goes into it. You know, I wish I could go back and I feel like I was always really good to the dentist I work for, but now I'm like, I don't even know how you're still making it.
There's so much Yeah. That goes into every aspect of dentistry. Yeah, it's, I mean, yeah. When you're a provider, you think it's all about providing, but when the other sides of it, it's unbelievable. And then to top that off, we needed a philanthropy component. I love that America's Tooth Fairy.
I met her at do and she's helped us out and just so many different people who've come alongside us. But we wouldn't know any of 'em if it wasn't for organizations like two.
Anne: Oh my God, you're so sweet. I didn't know you were gonna go there too either, but I just feel like you're a big part of what we are.
It's the heart. It's the knowing that we're stronger together and that you're message is being heard and you just keep standing up to that. Crystal. And so that's what we,have to continue to support you
are there opportunities for dentists to come and work with your c community? Definitely,
Crystal: definitely. we're growing, we're changing, I'm living in Arizona for the first time part of the year. This is really exciting, but. The cool thing about Montana is you can get a volunteer license for the state of Montana. Okay, it's 20 bucks. Our dental association, we get volunteers through Montana easily, If you're from outta state, you can come. You can help anytime You can get ahold of me at It's crystal@smilesacrossmontana.org.
But we do have a really cool opportunity coming up. It's our second year doing this. We're actually having a mission clinic. That's March 27th and 28th. It's a Friday, Saturday at Montana State University. It's, centered around, there's this huge intertribal, native American powwow that goes on that weekend.
And so we'll be seeing MSU students and people coming into the community. in Bozeman, we have a large migrant community that we take care of. All the people who can't get access. And so if people want to come and be a part of that weekend, we need volunteers and we'd love to have them.
And if they just reach out either through social media, it's Crystal Loves Dental, or Smiles across Montana, or if you just want to email us, we'd love to give you more information.
Anne: you know, it's so interesting how we can go to other countries, but there's so much to be done in the country that we live in.
So if you're listening to this I know if you're doing anything with Crystal, you're going to have fun while you're working and also see some.good people and just feel good about what your profession has provided you to be able to give to others.
And I think that would be a wonderful thing and I'm glad that we can actually put that out there
today.
Crystal: Yeah, and I would love it if you wanted to contact me and I'll put any of that information out on the do site as well. Um,
Anne: be great.
Crystal: We do have kind of something that is in the works that could be really great if you don't know much about minimally invasive care.
Jeremy Horst, who is one of the biggest scientists that's worked with SDF, he, you know, we're talking about doing a little bit of CE right before it starts, so I think that could be an awesome opportunity for someone also.
Anne: I think so too because there are so many providers that have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to that.
And so let's, save the teeth around the world and, let's start right in Montana and beyond. So Crystal Spring. Thank you for sharing a little bit about you today and about your mission and about your calling, help people that are underserved. Thank
Crystal: you. And thanks for giving me the, the opportunity to do that little plug.
'cause we'd love to have as many people as possible.
Anne: I'm so excited to be able to. Know you and to be able to help support you as you have supported me, in this beautiful profession that we're in.
So anybody that's listening today, reach out to Crystal. have all the, contacts in the show notes, and most importantly. Do what we're doing. Crystal and I is to keep doing you and Crystal. Let's keep doing us. Okay.
Crystal: You Anne, love you. Thank you for this. That was awesome.
Anne: Thank you, hun. Love you too.
All right, everybody. Have a great day.
