Familiarizing dental hygienists to migraines and botulinum toxins. / Familiarizar a las higienistas

"When you succeed, don't forget the responsibility of making somebody else succeed with you. "

Dr. Antonia Novello De Cohelo,

First Woman and The First Hispanic To Be Surgeon General of The United States achieve optimum oral and overall health. Our Journal Committee vividly lives this tenant, by staying committed to this first and only bilingual Hispanic Oral Health publication in the USA - The

Journal of the Hispanic Dental Association (JHDA).

Dr. Mercedes Mota-Martínez 2022 HDA President Communicate, Lead, and Pay it Forward

Welcome to the second issue of the Journal of the Hispanic Dental Association (JHDA). I wish to congratulate our Journal Committee, authors, reviewers, and editors, for the launch of this extraordinary initiative for our organization.

Some of you have had the opportunity to hear me mention that HDA is on a remarkable journey. Since the birth of our organization, our founding members set an ambitious, yet necessary goal, to serve as the leading voice for Hispanic Oral Health. We must not be shy to boldly go where no organization has gone before - this is our journey. And lately, exciting initiatives have been put in place to make this journey an inspiring one.

Since my early years in the dental career, I have fought many causes to benefit the dental profession and the patients and communities we live and serve in. In my opinion, there are three ways of serving as the leading voice set forth by our founding members as our true north.

First, we must find ways to communicate and share broadly, the core issues that members of Hispanic/ LatinX, and underserved communities face, to Second, we must participate, engage, and lead, evidence-based research to precisely address the current status or outcomes of oral health among Hispanics/Latinos, and the underserved. This coupled with identifying ways to influence public policy and initiatives to have an adequate representation of Hispanic and/or culturally trained Oral health providers, to serve the largest and fastestgrowing ethnic group in the United States. As part of our journey, HDA is currently engaged in research that will be published as white papers on the status of Oral health and Workforce representation of Hispanics in the United States.

Thirdly, and maybe most importantly, those of us that have been able to succeed, must find a way to pay it forward. As stated by Dr. Antonia Novello de Cohelo, we must not forget the responsibility of making somebody else succeed with us. Whether it’s a new Colleague, Student, or other healthcare provider, bring them along and encourage them to be part of our journey.

I spoke many times about being ONE voice and a united home. For me, HDA represents that home. It takes serious courage to get on this path and stay on it. HDA is where we all should come together, to boldly go where no organization has gone before. I hope you all enjoy this issue of the JHDA.

“We must participate, engage, and lead, evidence-based research to precisely address the current status or outcomes of oral health among

Hispanics/Latinos, and the underserved.”

Hispanics are officially declared the largest minority group in the U.S., History.com editors, published byA&E Television Networks with updated information on February 2022: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/census-hispanicsdeclared-largest-minority-group-in-us