Thankful for family, friends, and a bright future for your profession

By Kevin Henry, Editor

So how was your Thanksgiving? My Thanksgiving Day was pretty quiet. My 12-year-old daughter was in Arkansas with her mom, so I spent Turkey Day with my mom and dad. It was a very small gathering, but it was a good day.

For me, Thanksgiving has not only been a time to enjoy food and family, but also make plans for Black Friday. I love getting up at 4 a.m. and heading to the shopping centers to throw elbows ... I mean, shop ... with my fellow bargain hunters. Come rain, come cold, come dark of morning ... I love being out there waiting for those doors to open and the mad dash for a cheaper camera or toy to begin. Maybe I’m the only male in the world who likes doing this but, for me, it’s nice to know that most of my Christmas shopping can be done by the time I eat breakfast on the day after Thanksgiving.

Part of my Thanksgiving tradition is leaving sometime during the weekend to head to New York to take part in the Greater New York Dental Meeting. It’s one of my favorite shows of the year, and I’m always able to meet with friends and authors there. It’s a great place to finalize plans for editorial in 2011. As you read this, I’m at the Javits Center in Manhattan walking the aisles and seeing new products and hearing new ideas. I really do enjoy it. If you’d like to be a part of the Greater New York meeting from wherever you are, click here to see some of the new products being displayed at the show.

I ran across this article on Yahoo recently, stating that dental assisting is one of the “hot careers” through 2018 and beyond. Click here to read the article. I can’t say that I was completely surprised to see dental assisting on here, but I did notice that it was the only dental-related job listed. For years, we’ve talked about hygiene being the “hot job” of the future, but there is talk circulating that more dentists will do their own hygiene in the future. Obviously that would open up more doors for dental assistants, so we’ll see if that really happens.

Bottom line, it’s a time for all of us to be thankful for family and our profession and its future. I know I am thankful to be the editor of Dental Assisting Digest™, and get to know so many of you either in person or through Facebook. If you ever have an idea for an article or a question, please drop me a line at [email protected].

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