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The term “intergenerational equity” is common in policy advocates’ vocabulary. It is the idea of fairness between generations. To give an example, the dues of CDA Life Active Members was just raised dramatically.

In my editorial last year, I was hoping that 2017 would usher in a year of “making dentistry great again.” It doesn’t seem that has happened, instead there is division and divisiveness, and we have to be careful how to speak to our patients about current events.

We are at a challenging health policy crossroads. I write this days before Donald Trump is inaugurated as President. He, his choice for Secretary of the US Department of Health & Human Services, and the Republican-led Congress are all poised to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Mattel came out with Dentist Barbie in 1997, and according to the Barbie (and ADA) Facebook pages, “When Dentist Barbie put on her lab coat in 1997, 14% of dentists were women. Today, that number is up to 27%.”

Sometime this spring we expect the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an opinion in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission. This is one in a series of Supreme Court decisions that dictate many parameters of the dental profession.