Planning For The Future

In 2013, the profession of dental hygiene celebrated its 100th anniversary. It would be fascinating to go back in time to ask the first dental hygiene leaders about their hopes and dreams for the profession they were just beginning to create. Could they even begin to imagine what dental hygiene would look like 100 years later?

The American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) has a time capsule enclosed in glass in its central office in Chicago. The label states, “Do not open until 2113.” One can’t help but wonder what future ADHA members, dental hygiene leaders, and central office staff will think when they break the capsule’s glass. Will they clearly understand the ADHA’s vision in 2013 and beyond? What will the dental hygiene profession look like 100 years from now? What drivers will affect change?

The answers to many of these questions can be found in the ADHA’s current strategic plan—the organization’s roadmap to an envisioned future for the dental hygiene profession.¹ It’s often said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. With the many complex issues facing health care today, medical and dental organizations across the United States are challenged to determine how to put their resources to best use for the benefit of the public and their members. The ADHA is no different.

One of the responsibilities a national organization holds is to continuously examine the world in which its members live and work on a daily basis, and look for and shape trends in their respective professions. With significant changes occurring in the US economy and health care system, the ADHA began hearing more about geographic job losses for many dental hygienists, while a concurrent surge in the number of dental hygiene education programs also was occurring. The ADHA subsequently commissioned an environmental scan that enabled the organization to view dental hygiene through a different lens of opportunity, and to shine a light on the potential to expand the ADHA’s vision of the profession.²   

With more dental hygienists entering the job market and fewer jobs in the private practice arena, the need was clear to focus attention on dental hygiene education to prepare dental hygienists for a very different future—one that affords more career options and opportunities integrated throughout the health care system. The ADHA, in partnership with the Santa Fe Group and the ADHA Institute for Oral Health, hosted the symposium “Transforming Dental Hygiene Education: Proud Past, Unlimited Future” in September 2013. The outcomes of the environmental scan and symposium were just two of the drivers prompting change to the ADHA strategic plan, which is based on its core ideology, vision statement, and goals. These include:

• Core ideology: Lead the transformation of the dental hygiene profession to improve the public’s oral and overall health.
• Vision statement: Dental hygienists are integrated into the health care delivery system as essential primary care providers to expand access to oral health care.
• Goals: The ADHA’s goals focus on three central areas of emphasis.
  • Education—Dental hygiene professionals will be prepared for the evolving scope of professional practice and settings.
  • Alliances—The ADHA is better positioning the profession to be viewed as an integrated part of the health care continuum through strategic partnerships.
  • Advocacy—The profession of dental hygiene will advance at the state and federal level.

The new strategic plan guides the daily activity of the association, ensuring that everything the ADHA does is aimed toward its core ideology and vision. These essential components fit together to describe the direction the ADHA intends to take on behalf of the public it serves—and the profession that it and its members are passionately dedicated to furthering.

The ADHA invites dental hygienists across the country to join in and fuse their energy and passion for dental hygiene with the organization’s strategic plan to make this future a reality. There is no better time than now to be part of the transformation of the profession. Let’s make the dental hygienists who open the time capsule in 2113 very proud.

From Perspectives on Dental Hygiene, a supplement to Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. November 2014;12(11):10,12.