With students crowded around a dental chair, Dental Hygiene Assistant Professor Karen Maasch demonstrates on a manikin how to insert suction tools and other instruments in a patient's mouth so a dental hygienist has a dry field to work.

"Tongues are crazy," Maasch tells the students matter-of-factly as her fingers maneuver inside the manikin's mouth. "They will try to mess you up."

After the brief demo, it's the students' turn. As they practice the various techniques on each other, Maasch wanders among the small groups in the Dental Hygiene Clinic on Perry Health Sciences Campus. At one chair, she guides a student's hands while inserting a mouthpiece; at another, she warns a student against mentioning "gagging" around patients with dental instruments in their mouths.

"Teaching is a different challenge every day," Maasch said later. "I try to tell [students] it's OK to make mistakes here. You'll survive."

Maasch has survived in the field of oral health care for more than four decades and has the stories to prove it. She routinely uses anecdotes about "Dr. V" and "Jane," a dentist and hygienist she encountered years ago who weren't the best at infection control and dental procedures, to illustrate for students what not to do around patients.

"She gives us so many real-life examples," student Gabriela Adame said. "She goes above and beyond to make sure we understand everything."

For example, student Natalie Gomez said, Maasch has emailed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to clarify contradictory patient care information on the agency's website.

"She does things you wouldn't think of doing," Gomez said. "She takes time out of her weekends to make sure we have the information we need."

Maasch says she grew up hearing stories about dental offices from her cousin, who was a dental assistant in New York.

"I wanted to be like her," she said. "It seemed like a fun job."

Maasch trained as a dental assistant while still in high school but quickly decided it would be more fun to have more patient interaction and a space of her own in the office. So, while working as a dental assistant, she went back to school to train as a hygienist.

After working as a hygienist in New York, Texas and Wilmington – and after her children were grown – she returned to school again to earn a bachelor's degree so she could teach, following in the footsteps of another role model.

"I had an amazing dental assisting instructor, a real mentor," she said. "I wanted to teach like her."

Shortly after earning her degree, Maasch joined Wake Tech's faculty in 2017. Within five years, she won an Excellence in Teaching award from the college. In between, she taught students in person on campus throughout the pandemic.

"A lot of hygienists quit – left the industry – during the pandemic, so there's a huge demand for our students," she said. "I'm trying to prepare them as best I can to meet that challenge."

Some of Maasch's students met a different challenge last fall, helping a Wake Tech employee who had suffered a stroke in a Perry Health Sciences Campus parking deck until paramedics arrived. The students used training they had received in Maasch's medical emergencies class.

"Teaching students and seeing them go on to successful careers is rewarding," she said. "But knowing your students saved someone's life, that's on a whole other level."