Why Chose us?
Proprietor
Amanda Kirwin, B.CDA
Lincoln Tech accredited dental assisting program 2008-2009
Biological Dental Assistant and member of IABDM (International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine) 2021
IABDM Committee Chair Dental Assistant
Certified Master Iridologist
(Certification Completed Through Trinity School of Natural Health)
International Iridology Practitioners Association (
Experience:
2009-2013
Certified Dental Assistant/Administrator
Chairside expanded functions dental assistant in multi specialty practice with clinical experience in biological dentistry, full mouth rehabilitation, cosmetic, general dentistry, holistic, endodontics, periodontics, sleep medicine, oral surgery and orthodontics.
Amanda enter the dental field eager to learn as much about dentistry as she possibly could. In addition to her chairside responsibilities she also was trained as a dental administrator where she gained a comprehensive understanding of insurance policies, treatment planning and front office operations. Her clinical knowledge and experience allowed her to put all of the pieces together and confidently support patients through treatment.
2013-2018
Dental Assistant Department Team Lead Capalbo Dental Group (aka Plum Dental)
Amanda began as a chairside dental assistant and displayed strong leadership skills and passion. As the practice expanded into a multi location, multi specialty dental group Amanda was instrumental in successfully transitioning the acquired dental offices. She assisted the chief operations officer and helped develop office wide protocols and procedure manuals.
She was responsible for training assistants and administrators. Amanda worked chairside with new doctors transitioning into practice. She worked closely with these doctors making them feel comfortable and confident during treatment while reinforcing high standards of dental care. She also worked implementing protocols, conducting staff
meetings, analyzing, and developing strategies for more efficient time management of assistant duties, ordering, coverage for administrative and assistant time off, and scheduling.
During this time Amanda was given the opportunity to work with professional leadership coach and New York Times Best selling author John Wortman, to strengthen skills and create structure. Collectively they worked to perfect her leadership skills and management style.
2018-2021
Dental Group (RI/CT)
Assisted in the successful transition of three dental practices in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Responsible for credentialing practices with insurance companies, implementing procedure protocols while applying all past knowledge and experience. She was able to help grow all three practices while handling the shutdown and re opening during the pandemic.
This practice specialized in cosmetic dentistry, full mouth rehabilitation and dental sleep medicine, Amanda expanded her clinical knowledge and even went on to learn medical billing for dental sleep appliances.
2018-Present
Established Last Green Valley Dental Consulting and Mentoring
Amanda and Samantha developed Last Green Valley Dental Consulting and Mentoring with the hopes of making dentistry a better place for colleagues and patients.
Throughout their careers they have been able to develop many tools and strategies to grow practices and support professional development while implementing the highest level of dental care.
Amanda has faced many hardships early in life which has gifted her the ability to be resilient, hardworking and optimistic. She is able to look at things from a different angle and convert hardship into purpose. Her positive attitude is infectious and will inspire others by simply being around her. She enjoys watching team members grow and thrive while mentoring and training.
Amanda enjoys building value into each position and working with team members on personal development so each team member has the opportunity to have a fulfilling and meaningful career in dentistry.
Certified Master Iridologist
(Pending Board Certification)
Amanda currently is enrolled in the Certified Master Iridologist course at Trinity School of Natural Health. Iridology examines the pigmentation and iris markings to determine potential genetic and health deficiencies. The optic nerve contains 800,000 to 1.7 million nerve endings these nerves are linked to every organ, gland and tissue in our body.
Iridology can be used to identify system weakness and dysfunction. It gives us the opportunity to implement healthy lifestyles, supplements and minerals to hopefully avoid health crisis.
Our team
Proprietor
Samantha Burnell, B.RDH
Education:
Certified Biological Dental Hygienist;
International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine- 2018
IABDM Dental Hygiene Committee Member
IABDM Study Club Host
AAS, Dental Hygiene;
Community College of Rhode Island - 2005
Experience:
1998-2002
Certified Nursing Assistant
Clinical experience in hospitals, nursing homes, and private home health care settings.
Samantha obtained her nursing certificate through the vocational education program during her junior and senior years in high school. This education gave her a great foundation of medical principles, ethics, terminology, and patient care. She saw firsthand how the medical profession operates, which stuck with her throughout her career.
2000-2005
Chairside Dental Assistant
Chairside dental assistant with clinical experience in general, orthodontics, endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery, and cosmetic and aesthetic, dentistry. She was also cross-trained on front desk duties and insurance.
Working as a dental assistant while attending hygiene school provided Samantha with an in-depth view of the practice of dentistry. She also started learning early the intricacies of the business end., and saw the control the dental insurance companies have over patient care.
2005-2010
Full-Time Clinical RDH
Samantha held part-time long-term positions and temping across Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
This experience gave her insight into how different practices and clinicians operate. She developed deep insight into what worked, what didn’t, and why.
Samantha applied her clinical experience as a dental assistant, and her belief in the value of “textbook” dental care to educate her patients. She always had the best interest of the patient in mind. This gained her the respect of her employers and co-workers. It also won her the trust of her patients who in turn would become a healthier “compliant dental patient”
2012-2018
COO, founding member of Capalbo Dental Group (aka Plum Dental)
Samantha’s clinical idealism and drive was noticed by her peers, including an entrepreneurial dentist who wanted to take his family’s single dental practice and turn it into a multi-location, multi-specialty group. She spent the next six years building the largest group practice in Rhode Island by acquiring and transitioning fourteen dental practices in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
This gave her experience in acquisitions and transitions of dental practices. Along with all aspects of human resources, management, system building, team building, marketing, and operations. She worked with dental consultants and seasoned dental accountants learning the importance of analytics. She attended courses on practice management and the business of dentistry all over the country. She also received a year of leadership coaching from best-selling author John Wortman of Thought Leaders. She also received mentorship from Dr. Trettin Vice President, Operations American Dental Partners, Inc.. All of this enabled her to create custom procedural manuals, training manuals, clinical and procedural trackers and audit forms to ensure the highest clinical standards. She also learned bookkeeping and compliance review forms, excel trackers for business monitoring, budget planning, growth plans, how to scale a practice, etc.
All of the practices she transitioned had substantial year-to-year growth in revenue and profit. She implemented strong periodontal programs and built cohesive happy teams.
As the offices were updated and expanded, Samantha had the pleasure of being hands on with the project management and design. She learned the tricks of the trade from dental equipment specialists, and office designers. She developed strong relationships with vendors and contractors to get the jobs done right.
She developed a management style that promotes best practices, and a happy healthy work environment. Having done all jobs in the dental practice aside from being the dentist, gave her the ability to see everyone’s point of view.
Eventually she helped structure and transition the group into a DSO.
2018-2021
Partner in a Dental Group
Samantha paired with an associate dentist and used her network connections to locate and form a three-location dental group with practices in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Many of her former employees joined the group to make the practices extremely successful very quickly. She used the manuals she had built, and the skills she learned to setup successful practices. All three practices had growth, including during the pandemic. During the pandemic Samantha and Amanda spear headed the handling of the shutdown and re-opening and were the only two team members that worked every day to manage the practices.
2018- Present
Established Last Green Valley Dental Mentoring and Consulting March 2018
Samantha and Amanda decided what they had to offer was something that should be shared to help the dental profession rather than a secret kept from competitors. They believe that everyone deserves the right to a happy and healthy work environment. Most importantly they believe people have the right to quality dental care that has a positive impact on their wellbeing.
They have used their experience to help with various projects, both small and large to help make people and practices happier and healthier.