Working

Cindy Kleiman, CDA, RDH, BS

Cindy Kleiman, CDA, RDH, BS, has devoted her entire career to working with patients with disabilities. As a speaker, consultant and advisor, Kleiman travels across the country with a simple goal in mind: increasing the quality of care that patients with disabilities receive.

Kleiman entered the dental hygiene workforce in 1978, following a year working as a certified dental assistant. While most of her peers went to work in clinical practice, Kleiman chose otherwise, accepting the position of dental health coordinator at Moss Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa., at the urging of Irene Woodall, RDH, MS, who was at that time working as the director of the dental hygiene program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. "I did not have any interest [in working with patients with disabilities]," said Kleiman. "It was just something that she [Woodall] thought I would be good at, so I said 'okay,' I'll go meet them [staff dentists at Moss].

While providing clinical and bedside oral hygiene care for patients with head injury, spinal cord injury and stroke, Kleiman's purpose as a dental hygienist became clear and her life was forever changed. Kleiman credits this change to Gilbert Zayon, DDS, and Jack Zafran, DDS (now deceased), the two dentists on staff at Moss who became her lifelong mentors.

"They [Zayon and Zafran] instilled in me more than education; they instilled in me the passion," said Kleiman. "Education you can get from books; I don't think you can get passion from textbooks." From that point on, Kleiman has dedicated her entire career--from teaching and speaking to consulting and volunteering--to increasing the quality of oral hygiene care that patients with disabilities receive. While working at Moss, Kleiman redesigned the mouth stick, a device commonly used by patients with spinal cord injuries that allows them to better function in their environment.

After working two years at Moss, Kleiman traveled back to her home state of Arizona. Knowing that she would like to continue providing care for patients with disabilities, she began networking in the community. Before long, she found herself knocking on the door of the Good Samaritan Medical Center's Rehabilitation Institute. After learning that the facility lacked a dental department, she knew she had found her niche. In 1980, Kleiman founded the dental health department at Good Samaritan Medical Center. As the dental program coordinator, Kleiman provided oral health care for patients with disabilities and conducted in-service education for hospital staff.

In 1986, Kleiman left Good Samaritan to pursue other opportunities. In 1987, the Arizona Department of Health Services, in conjunction with Northern Arizona University and Phoenix College, hired Kleiman as the coordinator of the Office of Oral Health Homebound Program. This program allowed Kleiman to provide oral hygiene care to medically compromised patients using portable dental equipment, which she could take to nursing homes as well as private residences. Another part of her coordinator role involved teaching dental hygiene students how to provide care in this nontraditional setting.

Today, Kleiman travels across the country as an oral care consultant and speaker, a job that she finds to be both exhausting and exciting. At the beginning of her presentations, Kleiman passes out "anti-depressants"--better known as M&Ms--to all the attendees. Her most popular presentations include, "Oral Care for the Disabled Patient--Tricks for the Trade and the Mistakes I've Made," and "Medical Histories, Medical Emergencies."

In the past two years, Kleiman has become actively involved in educating intensive care unit (ICU) nurses about the deadly condition, Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP), which occurs in 20 percent to 25 percent of patients treated with mechanical ventilation and has a 50 percent to 80 percent mortality rate.

"Considerable research has shown that there is an oral health connection to this disease, and that there is the possibility to lower the patient's risk of this disease by performing more frequent and more effective oral hygiene care on these patients who are using ventilators," said Kleiman.

Working as a consultant for Biotne, a company that manufactures products for patients with VAP, Kleiman travels to ICUs across the country instructing nurses on how to provide oral hygiene services to help improve the oral health of patients' mouths. "As with all our patients, each staff member I am working with is different," said Kleiman. "Some are very interested and eager to learn, but there are also those who don't understand why I am wasting their time. My challenge is teaching them that the oral care connection is critical to their patients' well-being."

Kleiman also offers two presentations, "Oral Hygiene: So Easy It Must Be Magic," and "Oral Health & VAP--Making the Connection," specifically for nurses. Teaching nurses has become an exceedingly gratifying part of her career. "Hopefully I am saving a life; what is more rewarding than that?" said Kleiman.

Since 1996, Kleiman has taught dental hygiene students emergency medicine at Phoenix College, where she received her certificate of completion in dental assisting. Her dental hygiene degree is from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, and her bachelor's degree in education is from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Kleiman has been a member of the American Dental Hygienists' Association since she graduated from dental hygiene school in 1977, and she was a student member of the association prior to graduation.

Kleiman is also a member of the Arizona State Dental Hygienists' Association (ASDHA), the Central Arizona Dental Hygienists' Association and the Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities. She is also on RDH magazine's editorial board.

Kleiman was the recipient of ASDHA's Unique Access to Care Award in 1984 and in 1996. In 1990, she was presented the Outstanding Phoenix College Alumni Award and in 1996 she received the Arizona Dental Public Health Award.

Over the course of her career, Kleiman has written numerous magazine and journal articles, including the one she coauthored with JoAnn R. Gurenlian, RDH, PhD, "Cerebrovascular Accident," which was published in Access in July 2002.

After 25 years, Kleiman is more energized and excited than ever. for more information about the work she does, please contact Kleiman at (480) 342-9655 or via email at JCKleiman@cox.net.

This edition of Working was prepared by Katie Barge