Q&A: Delivering technician dentistry care

Benita Altier, LVT, VTS (Dentistry), owner of Pawsitive Dental Education, provides professional dental instruction and consultation to veterinary practices and conferences, both in the US and internationals. Altier is president-elect for the Arizona Veterinary Technician Association as well as a past president for the Academy of Veterinary Dental Technicians (AVDT).

Altier presented a continuing education (CE) session about lighting, magnification and seating, during the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Long Beach, California. In a dvm360 interview, she discussed key points of this CE session including the importance of maintaining good posture while treating patients as well as selecting lighting and magnification tools such as loupes that best fit the individual needs of the care provider. She also discussed her path to technician specialization in veterinary dentistry and what’s next for the AVDT.

The following is a partial transcript of the interview, lightly edited for clarity:

dvm360: You started in veterinary dentistry with being asked to develop x-rays for a dentistry patient. What about dentistry “hooked” you?

Altier: I realized that dentistry was a lot more complex than I thought. And I really wanted to learn more and more and more about it. So, I met the people that started the VTS [Veterinary Technician Specialist certification] in dentistry in 2002, when I went to my first Veterinary Dental Forum, which is a conference, where I took my first class and their lectures. And during that time, I was really excited about it because this was like a whole new world that I didn't even know existed. So, I wound up started working on my VTS in dentistry in 2005 and sat for my board exam in 2008. I believe, at that time when I passed my exam, I was one of 23 people in the whole world. Now we are about 128 members [or] somewhere close to that [number].

dvm360: Dentistry education is a focus of your business, Pawsitive Dental Education, and you gave a lecture at the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Long Beach, California, about lighting, magnification and seating. Why are good seating and posture so important with dentistry care?

Benita Altier, LVT, VTS (Dentistry): Working in practice for 29 years and actually performing dental procedures, pretty soon you wind up kind of realizing that your body hurts. The things that really start hurting, and the things that I experienced, were things like my neck, my wrists [and] my hands. My back seems to be pretty good, but you know, people have those issues as well. And I started thinking, ‘Well, gosh, how is [it] that I'm dealing with this type of injury or chronic pain, and how could I potentially stop that from happening? And, how could I also help to prevent this from happening to other people?

I started really being more aware of why lighting and magnification was important. That's when I decided to get my first set of loupes, we call them, and light that will help to focus light on the area where I'm working. And when I started employing that, I realized that I was really suffering for no reason before that. I could now sit up [straighter], I can look down through the oculars. I could actually see what I was doing a lot better.

But the most important thing is wearing something like that corrected my posture, because I didn't realize [that] when you're trying to work on a patient, you're adapting your body to that particular animal, the height of the table, whatever type of seating you may or may not have like you're really having to kind of become a contortionist trying to get your head closer to the area where you can see and that's usually going to cause you to be in some sort of uncomfortable posture for a long period of time, which then leads to these sort of maladaptation. The human body can't adjust for that type of thing over a long period of time, and so then you wind up with, you know, injuries which can lead to permanent disabilities and things that could potentially even cause people to have to change industries or not do that kind of work anymore.

dvm360: You touched upon the lighting and magnification [used in dentistry practice], and that's an interesting correlation between those and posture. Do you have any advice for anybody that might be interested in selecting some of these tools?

Altier: In regard to how to go about picking the correct lights and loops for you, because they're very user specific. You can't necessarily buy something off the shelf that's...one-size-fits-all, or even something that's infinitely adjustable that could potentially make it so multiple people could use the same pair of loupes. If you really want to do this profession for a long period of time and really be comfortable—and not actually cause more injury on top of injury—I would definitely recommend exploring the option of customized loupes and lights, because the manufacturer actually creates them based on your pupillary distance, [as well as] your torso height, your table height, and your working distance. That way, they're adjusted specifically for what you need them to be. Usually, the ones that are customized can have your prescription lenses in [them].

It really is going to be your happy place, so to speak, if you have well-fitting loupes and lights that actually have the correct prescription in them, or magnification, or whatever is going to be what you need. The other thing is [that], usually, the ones that are higher end and more customized are going to be lighter weight as well, and the lighting is going to be a lot safer [and] better quality.

dvm360: The Academy of Veterinary Dental Technicians’ gave its’ first examination for Veterinary Technician Specialist (VTS) certification in 2006 and is recognizing that 20th anniversary in 2026. What does the association have planned?

Altier: So, we're going to have a special celebration at the veterinary dental Forum, which is going to be held in Orlando, Florida, in October [2026]. And so, yeah, you know, we're going to have a special dinner. It's going to be for our members and their guests, as well as potentially some of the people that are still in the process of working to earn their specialties. But it's going to be at the [2026] dental forum. So it's exciting.

To read more news and view expert insights from Fetch Long Beach, visit dvm360’s dedicated site for conference coverage at https://www.dvm360.com/conference/fetch-long-beach