Glycine Powder: A New Approach to Air-Polishing (Clinical Feature‪)‬

I am a full-time dental hygiene instructor at Iowa Central Community College (ICCC) in Fort Dodge, Iowa. I started with the ICCC dental hygiene department when it was a pilot program two years ago. I have learned many valuable lessons and have had the opportunity to "relearn" many of the basic principles of dental hygiene and instrumentation. The program that we have now is fully accredited and has had great success on our national and clinical boards. The program strives to be current in all new research concepts, implementation, educational methodologies, ergonomics and any other area that will benefit the students in our program. When my immediate supervisor and coordinator of the program, Renee Piper, RDH, MA, gave me the opportunity to research glycine powder, I was honored. Piper has always encouraged me to use scientific research-based evidence in an attempt to complement our curriculum. The research on this new air-polishing procedure is limited, but the results that I have found have been valuable and supported by other dental professionals.