04/07/2026
Debbie Zafiropoulos (known by many as Debbie Z) and I and I go back a long way. I first met her about a year after I started my career in dentistry - about 25 years ago!
At the time, I worked for an ad agency that specialized in the dental industry. One of our clients was the salivary diagnostics company, OralDNA Labs.
One day, I was presenting the PR strategy to the company’s executives, sales team, and clinical educators as part of an all-day off-site meeting.
During a break, I was talking to a group of agency and client people when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Naturally, I turned around.
“Hi, I’m Debbie Z!”
We hit it off right away and began a decades-long history of collaboration starting with OralDNA Labs and also including companies such as LED/ VELscope.
The common denominator of these companies was that they all had an adjunctive solution for oral cancer screening.
Debbie and I often found ourselves out in front of awareness initiatives. Me, leading the PR campaigns and she driving the clinical education efforts – it was and still is a very effective awareness-to-adoption formula.
At one point, I started introducing Debbie as “The Vigilant Hygienist,” and the name stuck. I guess she didn’t mind because she adopted it as her tag line.
In the Oral Cancer Awareness Month edition of Dental Duets published exclusively on DrBicuspid, we get straight to it: Why oral cancer is still slipping through the cracks, what dentistry is getting wrong, and how clinicians can build real vigilance into everyday care.
Debbie also talks about why dental clinicians should "screen outside the mouth."
What does she mean by that? Take a few minutes and read what I believe is a very important conversation.
https://bit.ly/OralCancerExams
Michael Ventriello and Debra Zafiropoulos explore why oral cancer screening must become a daily practice in dentistry.
