JACKSON HOLE WOMAN, Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - 29
Mother, daughter team up on teeth Hahn, a dental hygienist, and Espinoza, a dentist, work together at ElkRidge. By Mike Koshmrl
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he mother-daughter dental-care duo who are trying their darnedest to improve Jackson Hole residents’ choppers easily could have never happened. Brittney Espinoza is a new dentist at ElkRidge Dental, and Nina Hahn, her mother, can be found working alongside her as a dental hygienist. But Espinoza wasn’t always so inclined to follow in her mama’s footsteps. “She didn’t want to do anything I did,” Hahn said. Espinoza, who completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Wyoming, planned in college to get into medicine but was interested in obstetrics and gynecology. The decision to head to dental school surprised her mother. “I learned she wanted to be a dentist when she applied to 14 dental schools,” Hahn said. “She didn’t tell me too much about it.” The mother and daughter were professionally united in April, when Hahn jumped offices across Jackson to ElkRidge. Espinoza took a job at the office in March, which gave her an opportunity to raise her two children in the town she grew up in. Previously she worked at a dental office in Austin, Texas. At ElkRidge Dental, Espinoza and Hahn work side by side and complement each other well. “I’ve worked with other hygienists, and this is definitely the best situation,” Espinoza said. “We just work well, and we flow better together.” Though Hahn has the edge in professional tenure, Espinoza’s job title means she’s technically the boss. But “really, she’s the boss of me,” Espinoza said. “She will always be my mother, even in the workplace.” Hahn wasn’t having the boss allegation: “I am not, Brittney, you are.” When a client comes into the office, there’s not
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Dentist Brittney Espinoza and her mother, hygienist Nina Hahn, began working together in April.
a sign on the wall that says Hahn birthed Espinoza. Their relationship usually comes out in conversation, but when it doesn’t it can lead to some looks. “Sometimes it’s weird if we haven’t brought it up,” Espinoza said. “I’ll be talking to her and I’ll say, ‘Mom,’ and they will think it’s a little odd.” One perk of the mother-daughter duo for ElkRidge Dental has been the publicity — and perhaps the curiosity. ElkRidge has run ads pro-
moting the “newest mother-daughter team,” and an $85 exam. It has been a boon for business, Hahn said. “The idea of the promotion is to build clientele and to have a good-priced cleaning and examination to get people started,” she said. “It’s working well.” Contact Mike Koshmrl at 732-7067 environmental@jhnewsandguide.com.
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