ADHA Clinical Dental Hygienist Award for Cotter

The Crest Oral-B/ADHA Clinical Dental Hygienist Award is designed to bring awareness to the contributions that standout dental hygienists make in the lives of their patients. For 2017 recipient Jane Cotter, assistant professor at Texas A&M College of Dentistry’s Caruth School of Dental Hygiene, no place is this more evident than in her care for patients undergoing cancer treatment. Patient education and oral health take on paramount importance when individuals experience side effects such as fungal infections and dry mouth as a result of chemotherapy and radiation.

“The most rewarding part is providing services that reduce pain and suffering during treatment and prevent complications in the future,” Cotter says.

Cotter, a 30-year veteran of the profession who received a master’s degree from Caruth in 2009, is credited for her role in helping to establish the dental clinic at the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center just blocks from campus. Even after leaving her post as the clinic’s dental hygienist in July 2016 to re-join the dental hygiene faculty at Caruth, Cotter keeps a foot in this dental niche working a half-day each week at Dental Oncology Professionals of North Texas.