I have been to Italy twice as a tourist and six times to lecture and teach hands-on courses to Italian dental hygienists, dentists, and periodontists. Each time I visit, it is a new and rewarding adventure. I have presented lectures to several national Italian dental and dental hygiene organizations and I have also taught hands-on courses for dental hygienists in Bologna and Milan in the past. In recent years, I have spent most of my time teaching in the Department of Periodontics at the University of Bologna. Dr. Luigi Checchi, a long time friend and colleague, is the Chair of Oral Surgery, Periodontics, and Orthodontics there and regularly invites me to teach advanced periodontal instrumentation to his graduate students.

I have also taught many courses in Switzerland, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand where I have found that dentists and hygienists in foreign countries are most often excellent students who are eager to learn. As Americans, we tend to assume that our clinical practice is more progressive than in other countries. However, there are hygienists practicing in Europe who are very advanced in their use of computer assisted technologies, such as voice activated dental and periodontal charting, and highly skilled in ultrasonic instrumentation. In each country, there is always a group of exceptional clinicians who are as competent as the best American hygienists. This is not surprising, since the incidence and prevalence of periodontal disease and caries is often higher in their countries than in the United States and these hygienists are faced with extremely difficult patients on a daily basis.

After my lectures and teaching were done, I ate wonderful pasta and gelato, which were not on my diet, but I still lost 5 pounds from walking so much every day. I guess I should be glad that my feet bothered me more than my back on this trip! I also took time to marvel again at the art and architecture of Florence, the beauty of Venice, and the glory of the Roman Forum, St Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. But by far the most wonderful part of being in Italy was seeing the gratitude on the faces of the students in Bologna who learned so much and made such remarkable progress in their technique in just 1 day.

If you ever have the opportunity to travel to different countries, try to visit a dental hygiene school or seek out practicing dental hygienists to observe their techniques and their work environment. We have so much to learn from each other that our patient care and our profession can only be enhanced by this type of cross-cultural education and communication.

—Anna M. Pattison, RDH, MS
Editor In Chief
apattison@belmontpublications.com