Dr. Harkin Receives AGD Fellowship Award
We here at Laura Sheaffer Harkin, DMD are excited to announce that Dr. Laura Harkin received the Academy of General Dentistry’s Fellowship Award during the association’s Annual Meeting & Exhibits held June 27-30 in Nashville.
The AGD Fellowship Award is presented to dentists who seek to provide the highest quality of dental care by remaining current in their profession, according to the association. To accomplish this goal, Dr. Harkin completed 500 hours of continuing dental education, passed a comprehensive exam, and fulfilled three years of continuous membership in the AGD.
As a Fellowship Award recipient, Dr. Harkin joins more than 6,900 active AGD Fellows who have gone above and beyond the basic requirements to care for their patients’ oral health.
“I want to provide the best dental care possible for every patient,” Dr. Harkin says. “I think this award helps me have the ability to do that.”
Fellowship is a designation Dr. Harkin pursued based on the advice and guidance of her father, Dr. John Sheaffer. Achieving this milestone was special to this New Holland, PA dentist because she remembers going to her father’s Fellowship Award about 15 years ago.
“Now I was getting my award and my family and parents were there to cheer me on,” she says. “Because my dad has been able to point me in the right direction, I’ve been able to get my award at such a young age in comparison. I felt proud, and I hope my patients feel proud to be part of our practice.”
To say the least, Dr. Sheaffer is elated by Dr. Harkin’s award.
“I think a lot of the direction one gets after they graduate from dental school allows them to progress more quickly in the profession or to gather skills more quickly,” Dr. Sheaffer says. “I think you need a mentor to help you figure out how to organize those steps to advance yourself.”
Dr. Sheaffer says Dr. Harkin is “immensely talented,” and he hears that daily from his patients who speak about her.
Working through the process to receive the Fellowship Award was helpful to Dr. Harkin, because it’s important to her that she remains current in her techniques and her knowledge of dentistry.
“This is an award that requires a lot of continuing education and participating education,” she says. “It’s not just sitting in a classroom, but teaching, giving presentations on my own, and hands-on work.”
Dr. Harkin isn’t stopping at Fellowship. Her next step is to work toward Mastership.
About the Academy of General Dentistry
The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) is a professional association of 38,000 general dentists dedicated to providing quality dental care and oral health education to the public. AGD members stay up-to-date in their profession through a commitment to continuing education. Founded in 1952, the AGD is the second largest dental association in the United States, and it is the only association that exclusively represents the needs and interests of general dentists. A general dentist is the primary care provider for patients of all ages and is responsible for the diagnosis, treatment, management, and overall coordination of services related to patients’ oral health needs. For more information about the AGD, visit www.agd.org. The AGD is a member of the Partnership for Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives, a first-of-its-kind national dental coalition composed of 35 leading dental health organizations. The Partnership’s campaign is designed to educate parents and caregivers on how to improve their children’s oral health in simple ways. The campaign offers families oral health resources through the website 2min2x.org.