Beth is owner of The Dental Connection, Port Orange, Fla. She has had a multifaceted career in clinical dental hygiene, education, and sales management. Beth lectures on dental hygiene therapies. She serves as editor-in-chief of Contemporary Oral Hygiene and welcomes comments at www.beththompsonrdh.com.

“What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

For the past several days, my son, my sister, and I have been traveling through Italy and Greece. We have experienced the awe of exploring ancient sites that we have read about, studied, and seen only in photographs and our imaginations.

Through our certified tour guides, we have had history and innovation come alive for us during our marvelous trip.

Each guide has been a specialist in their historical area—the Vatican, Mycenae, Athens, and all of our other destinations. Their passion and insight into how their ancestors lived, determined where and how to build, trade, and govern, have been an unexpected highlight of our adventure.

The guides also have been advising us where to look for authentic mementos, always steering us away from unlicensed vendors and the dreaded tourist traps.

These guides have shown incredible pride in the fact that part of their certification process makes them individually responsible and protective of the conservation value of the ancient grounds they have “inherited” and accountable for educating their guests about the importance of the preservation of these treasures.

The certified guides carry a deep resentment toward vendors who operate unlicensed and unregulated, paying no taxes. These vendors do not support the official business of tourism or pay their share of the conservation, rehabilitation, and care necessary to keep these structures and artifacts available for the enjoyment of generations to come.

Our guide through Epidaurus and Mycenae informed us that her education for first-level certification required 3 years of study. Then she said, “Another 2 years and I could practice dentistry; after all, dentists are not so well regulated.”

We have all heard our share of dental jokes. I hadn’t expected one to surface during my time in Greece, although I knew that inspiration for my editor’s message would occur during my trip. Lack of respect for those of us in dentistry is not at all Greek to me.

“I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.”

—John D. Rockefeller

These countries’ economies are heavily reliant upon tourism. According to our guides, Greece receives about 65% of its gross revenue from tourists. Therefore, they are proud and fiercely protective of tourism as a business.

I echo our tour guides in my resentment toward clinicians who do not support the profession that provides their livelihood and who disrespect their patients’ rights to be served by the best trained and equipped professionals.

Every day I look for those among us with the level of passion and commitment I saw in our guides. I look for those who have a passion for and a commitment to delivering care that maximizes health and is productive for both clinicians and our valued patients. We may progress and change how we are regulated, and hopefully, our education will become more valued, and we will expand our array and availability of services accordingly.

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”

—William James