Our Team
Who you will meet besides Dr. Brosi.
Three licensed clinical staff work in this office alongside Dr. Robert J. Brosi. At a routine visit you will spend more of your appointment with a hygienist than with the dentist, so it is worth knowing who does what and what their credentials actually mean.
The clinical team
Three people, and what each one is licensed to do.
RDA and RDH are California licenses with examinations, scope limits and continuing education behind them. They are not job titles the office made up.
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Dee'Ana Thompson
RDA Registered Dental Assistant
The person working alongside Dr. Brosi during treatment, and usually the one who talks you through what is about to happen.
A registered dental assistant is licensed by the Dental Board of California. The license exists because chairside assisting is clinical work. There is an examination behind it and continuing education attached to it.
During a procedure the assistant keeps the working area clear and dry and hands Dr. Brosi what he needs before he asks for it. Assistants also tend to notice discomfort before a patient says anything, because they are the one watching your face while the dentist is looking at a tooth.
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Suzanne Spurrier
RDH Registered Dental Hygienist
One of the two hygienists who carry out cleanings, measure your gum health and record how it changes over time.
A registered dental hygienist completes an accredited hygiene program and passes written and clinical board examinations before California will license them. Hygiene is its own profession with its own scope of practice, not a job somebody is trained into on a Tuesday afternoon.
At a routine visit the hygienist does most of the clinical work: removing what a toothbrush cannot reach, charting the pocket depths around every tooth, recording where the gums bleed, and flagging anything that needs the dentist to look closer.
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Marta Morrow
RDH Registered Dental Hygienist
The second of the two hygienists, holding the same California license and the same scope of practice.
Having two licensed hygienists is what makes hygiene time available across a four day week, and it means a cleaning can go ahead while Dr. Brosi is working in another room. In an office this size that matters more than it sounds.
The work is the same at either chair: a thorough cleaning, measured periodontal readings rather than a guess, and honest coaching about the two minutes twice a day that decide how the next six months go.
RDH
What a registered dental hygienist does.
Most of a checkup is hygiene. If you think of a cleaning as polishing, you are underselling the appointment by a wide margin.
The scaling comes first. Plaque hardens into calculus that a brush cannot shift, above the gumline and below it, and removing that deposit is the part that stops gum inflammation from turning into bone loss. Some of it comes off with hand instruments, some with an ultrasonic tip, and which one gets used depends on what is stuck to the tooth.
Then come the measurements. A probe reads the depth of the space between gum and tooth at six points around every tooth in your mouth, and the bleeding points get recorded. Those numbers are the whole basis for diagnosing gum disease and for knowing whether it is getting better or worse. A hygienist reading three millimeters where it was five last year is telling you something a photograph never could.
After that: imaging where it is due, a look at the soft tissue, polishing, and a conversation about technique. That last part is not filler. Most adults brush long enough and hard enough and still miss the same two places, and it takes someone watching you to work out which two. See what happens at an exam and cleaning.
RDA
What a registered dental assistant does.
Chairside assisting is the reason a filling takes twenty minutes instead of forty, and the reason you are not lying there swallowing water.
Before you sit down, the room has been turned over: surfaces disinfected, barriers changed, instruments taken from sterilization and laid out for the specific procedure you are booked for. That work is invisible when it is done properly and impossible to miss when it is not.
During treatment the assistant manages suction, isolation and retraction, which is a technical way of saying the tooth stays dry and your tongue stays out of the way. Bonded restorations fail when the field gets wet, so this is not a small job. Depending on the procedure and on the permits an assistant holds, the role can also include taking radiographs, taking impressions or scans, and placing temporary materials under the dentist's supervision.
Afterwards the assistant is usually the one who explains what to expect for the rest of the day: how long the numbness lasts, what to eat, what counts as normal soreness and what is a reason to call the office. Ask for it in writing if you would rather not rely on memory while your lip is still numb.
Getting the most out of a visit
Four things worth telling them.
The clinical team can only work with what they know, and none of it is embarrassing to say out loud.
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That you are nervous
Say it at the start, not halfway through. It changes the pace of the appointment, how much gets explained before it happens, and what you agree as a signal to stop. More on that in what to expect when you walk in.
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Every medication you take
Including supplements, and including the ones that seem unrelated. Blood thinners, bone medications, blood pressure drugs and anything that dries your mouth all change what is safe and what your decay risk looks like.
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What changed since last time
A tooth that has gone sensitive to cold, a spot that catches floss, a jaw that clicks in the morning. Small reports narrow down where to look. See common questions.
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That you want them to stop
Raising a hand is enough. Nobody here will push through it, and a two minute break costs far less than an appointment that ends badly.
Questions about who will be looking after you, or a request to see a particular hygienist? Call the office at (559) 683-4694 and ask. New patient information covers the rest, and the contact page has directions.
Ready when you are.
Call the office during business hours and you will speak to someone who works here, not an answering service. Prefer to write? Send an appointment request and we will call you back.
Monday to Wednesday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Thursday 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. For a life-threatening emergency call 911 rather than the office.