Valued dental team member retires after five decades

Anyone lucky enough to visit the Stayner Medical Centre on April 14 would have been treated to cupcakes and coffee during a bittersweet retirement part for long-time hygienist Elsie Burkholder.

She will be deeply missed by the team at Stayner Dental Care, said dentist Ted Proctor.

“She is highly skilled and knows everybody in town. She is my right- hand person and an integral part of the team,” said Proctor. “She will be missed, as a friend and a long-time colleague.”

Proctor said he was pleased to be able to convince Burkholder to push her retirement back a couple of times but she says she is now ready to have more time to travel and try new activities.

Reflecting on her career, Burkholder said it was ideal to have a good, stable job in her home community, going from full-time to part-time while raising two children. She said over the years her hours would ebb and flow depending on the staffing demands of the clinic.

Burkholder has worked in dentistry for 50 years. She graduated from college in 1975, embarking on a career as a dental assistant with Dr. Fabian Harvey. Two years later she was back in school upgrading her qualifications to dental hygienist in 1977. Another two years later she was enrolled again to upgrade once more to expanded duty hygienist.

Doing what is now referred to as restorative dental hygiene, Burkholder is the team member who does the fillings.

She said the profession requires regular upgrading and training.

When she began her career, Burkholder said her uniform was a white dress, white stockings and duty shoes, and she installed silver fillings. With the awareness of the health concerns relating to silver fillings, the industry switched to resin-based fillings (and traded the stockings for more comfortable scrubs.)

“That was huge,” she said, of the resin fillings. “It looks better and it’s healthier for people.”

Burkholder is very involved in her community, church, choir and local recreation.

“I believe it’s important to play a big part in your community,” she said. “It has been very nice to give back by caring for your community.”

As a life-long resident of Stayner, Burkholder knows a lot of her clients from the community and throughout her career she has enjoyed having up to four generations of some families sit in her chair.

She said that familiarity and connection helps put people at ease when visiting the dentist’s office.

“Clients can be a little apprehensive,” she said. “You just have to care about people.”