The MDA Annual Awards of Dentist of the Year, Outstanding New Dental Leader and Distinguished Service honor individual dentist members for their contributions to the dental profession and their communities.
Dentist of t Year Dr. Tara Cash
This award recognizes a member who has demonstrated outstanding service to the dental profession and/or in his or her community in the past year.
D
r. Cash was chosen for her trans- formational work to develop local,
dentist-led therapies for lip and tongue ties in newborns. She began in 2015 after being made ware of an un- met need. At that time newborns and their families had to drive hours out of area to access services, an insurmountable barrier for many. In the first year Dr. Cash completed approximately 30 cases; since then, she has expanded her work, and in 2021 more than 400 procedures were performed. Doing these locally in her office saves the patient and their families time and money and is much less invasive. Dr. Cash has evolved in her role beyond serving solely as a provider of this service and now collaborates with other experts in the fields of speech pathol- ogy and medicine. She has been a presenter to the Greene County Tongue Tie and Lactation Conference among other student, profes- sional and community groups. Local healthcare systems have taken notice and new programs currently are in development within the Springfield community to increase offerings for this service.
A second special accomplishment of Dr. Cash is concluding eight years as Chairperson of the Greater Springfield Dental Society’s robust Children’s Dental Health Month Screening program—a monumental undertaking as Springfield Public Schools constitutes one of the largest districts in the state with more than 37 schools. Dr. Cash, with the help of her staff and volunteers, has coordinated this large-scale project adeptly, including maintaining a dental health presence among school children during the logistical difficulties of the recent pandemic.
She is a member of the ADA, MDA and Greater Springfield Dental So- ciety, as well as Women in Orthodontics and the American Association of Orthodontists. Dr. Cash is a former board member and president of the Ronald McDonald House Charities “Tooth Truck” and has been rec- ognized as a 40 Under 40 by the Springfield Business Journal. In addition to serving as the current president of the Greater Springfield Dental Society, she is a longtime member of the Selection Committee for the Weaver Grant administrated under the Community Foundation of the
Ozarks. She earned both her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree (2006) and Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics specialty degree (2008) at the UMKC School of Dentistry. She practices at Cash Family Orthodontics alongside her father, Dr. Jerry Cash.
You are being acknowledged as Dentist of the Year for your work to develop local, dentist-led therapies for lip and tongue ties in newborns, and for your work with school screenings. For both, tell us what has been most rewarding?My lip tie and tongue tie work is very rewarding because new moms’ need to feel heard, seen and supported. I enjoy meeting new families and improving their feeding journey for both mom and baby long term. I really love working with children and our local school screenings gives me the opportunity to meet lots of children. They are hilarious and make me smile. I enjoy playing a small role in giving them a positive dental experience, especially for those children who really need care. The challenge is covering so many schools in a relatively short period of time.
We focus a lot of efforts on new and early career dentists and helping them get started successfully in the dental profession. You recently gave a talk, “Things I Wish I Knew When I Went Into Practice.” What are some of the top pearls of wisdom you’d share with this group of dentists—as it relates to the practice of dentistry, but also, in terms of getting involved in the dental organizations and taking on leadership roles. Also, you gave a copy of a book to that group, The Fred Factor. Why this title? Young dentists are excited, scared and often overwhelmed. As you move out of the academic arena, there is so much to learn when you are in practice.
First, don’t get frustrated too quickly. It is going to take time to figure out your practice, team, community and family. Take it one day at a time and do your best with that day.
Second, make it a priority to support your team and be open to new ideas. My team is so amazing; they are the nucleus of my practice. They regularly bring me new ideas for the practice to address patient and family needs. When I am open to new ideas, that reminds them we all must be open to new ideas. My team enables our practice to thrive, and I try to make it a priority to know that they are appreciated.
Third, focus on each individual patient. The Fred Factor and Kisses from Katie both have several excerpts that are foundational to my practice philosophies. At the beginning of my practice, I used the excerpt from Kisses from Katie that reads “… I’ve noticed something about people who make a difference in the world: They hold the unshakeable
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