The 100th anniversary of any profession is an important milestone. It is a time to look back and reflect on where we started and how far we have come. It is also a time to consider the future and visualize what our profession should look like 100 years from now. What challenges did our founding members have to endure? What will the next generation of dental hygienists have to encounter? How do we best keep all dental hygienists informed of the current issues and the latest science in our profession? Such is the purpose of this Special Commemorative Issue of the Journal of Dental Hygiene.
It has been my absolute privilege to have served the American Dental Hygienists' Association as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dental Hygiene for the last 7 years. During that time we have seen many changes, encountered several challenges and have developed a clear vision for the future of the Journal. My challenge as Editor started when I inherited a journal platform that had transitioned solely online from a print version. As technological advances have grown in the last 7 years, so has the Journal. We recently transitioned to a new platform bringing a better product to our members. The submissions to the Journal have grown each year; last year bringing a record number of original research and scholarly paper submissions. To accommodate authors in a more timely fashion, we will now publish the Journal 6 times per year! We are proud of the Journal of Dental Hygiene, one of only 3 peer-reviewed, scholarly publications for dental hygienists in the world. But, it has not been without its growing pains…something every publication faces from time to time. Later in this issue you will hear from 3 former Editors of the Journal who will share their experiences while leading our great publication.
I am excited to present 7 original manuscripts from several of our leading U.S. dental hygienists. Each of the authors has her own area of expertise that they share in their papers. Content encompasses the history of our profession as well as the vision for the future. I recommend that you read every word as each paper is important to YOUR professional future.
You are also invited to read the papers that were voted the most representative of “How Far We've Come.” They are presented in order of how many votes they received.
We wish to thank GlaxoSmithKline for their support of this commemorative issue of the Journal. I want to thank Josh Snyder, Staff Editor of the Journal, and Randy Craig, Director of Communications, for their assistance and support of this commemorative issue.
Finally, while in Chicago recently, I had the privilege of viewing every issue of the Journal since the beginning of the publication in 1927. Following are excerpts from the first manuscript written in the Journal by a dental hygienist, “The Dental Hygienist in the Making,” by Ethel Covington, DH.
“In 1923, our American Dental Hygienists' Association was organized with a membership of about one hundred of the eleven hundred dental hygienists then in the United States. And it is not surprising that at the beginning of the 1927, with a membership of about four hundred in our American Association we should so strongly feel the need of communication between all American hygienists that the Journal of the American Dental Hygienists' Association has been launched.
“As an auxiliary branch of dentistry, having limited field of service, we may be compared to any specialized group with the same grave danger of knowing too little about the things to which our work is related.
“While we know the value of specialization, and the dental hygienist is a specialist in that her field is limited to oral hygiene, it should be one of the most important aims of our Journal and our American Dental Hygienists' Association to keep us broadly informed with the greater field of which we are a part, dentistry in its relationship to better health.
“While the dental hygienist has demonstrated that she is a practical thinker, she is also capable of forming visions of the highest ideals of service.”
Oh, the places we will go… and I look forward to sharing the journey!
Happy Anniversary, ADHA!
Sincerely,
Rebecca Wilder, RDH, MS
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Dental Hygiene
- Copyright © 2013 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association
