Taking advantage of California sunshine this month is Kayli Melendez, a transplant from Oklahoma. Melendez is a 1990 graduate of the dental hygiene program at the University of Oklahoma and is currently a dental hygienist in the practice of Dr. Dan Jenkins in Chino.
Melendez says, "I moved to California after graduation. I still have my Oklahoma license. Wishful thinking! But my husband's job and Disneyland keep us here."
Disneyland is a reference to her five-year-old daughter.
An ADHA member, she is very active in the Tri-County component society as a past president and newsletter editor for eight years.
"I absolutely love helping people rid themselves of periodontal disease and educating them about their oral health," she said. "We use the CAESY computer education system in our office and it is wonderful! That, along with the intraoral camera, really drives the message home!
"One elderly patient of mine had no idea she had a black area of decay on one of her front teeth until I took a picture of it with the intraoral camera. She couldn't see it until it was magnified about 500x! Many patients don't really appreciate how much calculus is behind their lower anteriors until it is blown up 500 times!"
She married her husband, Felix, in 1992. When time permits with daughter Alexis, the couple are avid mountain bike riders, and Kayli participated in San Diego's Rock & Roll marathon earlier this year.
