Kathy S. Forbes, RDH, BS, FADHA is a dental hygienist, educator, speaker, author, consultant, seminar leader, and study club facilitator with more than 40 years of experience in clinical practice and professional education. She is widely recognized for her expertise in accurate classification, documentation, treatment planning, and CDT procedure code selection for patients with periodontal disease. 

Ms. Forbes has published extensively in professional journals and media outlets, including RDH Magazine, RDH eVillage, Dentistry Today, and DentistryIQ, with a focus on dental hygiene treatment planning and appropriate CDT procedure code utilization. Through her company, Professional Dental Seminars, Inc., she delivers customized, interactive in-office workshops designed to address practice-specific challenges related to treatment planning, procedure code selection, and the long-term management of periodontal patients.

Her national speaking engagements include presentations for the American Dental Association Annual Meeting, the ADHA Center for Lifelong Learning, RDH Under One Roof, and the Pacific Northwest Dental Conference. Among her recent professional honors, Ms. Forbes was named a 2023 recipient of the Sunstar RDH Achievement of Distinction Award in the category of Entrepreneurship and was selected as a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (FADHA).

She recently served as Chair of the ADHA Coding Committee, following her tenure as a Director of the DentalCodeology Consortium, where she contributed to the review and development of CDT procedure codes relevant to dental hygiene practice. Since 2017, Ms. Forbes has actively participated in the American Dental Association’s Code Maintenance Committee hearings, providing expert testimony and responding to questions regarding proposed code submissions.

For more than 25 years, Ms. Forbes has held faculty appointments in dental hygiene education, including positions at Concorde Career College in Aurora, Colorado; Pierce College in Tacoma, Washington; and Shoreline Community College in Seattle, Washington. Through the University of Washington Continuing Dental Education Program and the Pacific Northwest Dental Hygiene Institute, she has instructed courses in local anesthesia and restorative procedures for out-of-state hygienists seeking Washington state licensure. She has also served as faculty in the Teaching Practicum Series for Eastern Washington University’s Degree Completion Program, supporting licensed dental hygienists pursuing their baccalaureate degrees.