We would all like for ourselves and for those around us a life full of personal and professional success. Our professional success is usually based on feeling that, in general, the expectations that our patients expected have been met and that we have contributed to improving their oral health in a dignified manner and with a reasonable benefit.
That's certainly something many of our colleagues can take pride in. A more far-reaching perspective, due to its scope, is the aspiration that not only our patients, but also the community, the entire society, benefit from the beneficial impact of our actions. This is actually much more difficult to achieve from the solitude of our cabinets.
In our world, the impact of health policy decisions that affect society as a whole is much more efficient in improving the health status of each individual than the sum of the actions punctual information from each professional about the environment in which they are working. under his influence. It is true that both procedures require, far above technical excellence, an enormous capacity for work, sufficiently contrasted in many dentists. However, it should be remembered that Aristotle already said that excellence is not a gift but a habit and a habit is nothing more than the form of behavior acquired by repeating the same acts. In short: to God begging and with the mallet giving.
At a time when politics is I would like to make a defense of the need to acquire “political commitments”, of the need for our members to commit themselves, from different points of view and ideologies, to political options that are, as I said, those that, with their decisions, can bring truly substantial improvements to the population and to the profession. Improvements far superior to those achieved by the most excellent of our professionals with the most excellent of techniques. That is why I want to break a spear in favor of politicians of all ideologies who dedicate their time and effort to improving society. There are many, many more than those who vampirize the trust placed in them. The truth is that if we were guided by the frequency that people talk about one and the other, no one would believe that there are more good guys than bad guys. But I refuse to believe that they are all bad people and I refuse to continually talk about those who are. In the case of the profession, I want to pay tribute to all those who, from the politics of political parties, schools and professional associations, trade unions, employers, etc., aspire to influence, with their work, beneficial decision-making for the group. of dentistry. In Catalonia we are going to have elections to the parliament and we are going to have elections to the College of Dentists.
I send my congratulations on the advances to all the dental candidates who participated in each scúcute; from seu option i each posant tot el seu treball i esforç al servei de la seva causa, perquè face that tinguin different profiles are totes, ultimately, a mica nostres. If we wait for our profession I followed a profession d'èxit els necessitem a tots. The pity is that, unluckily, there are few of us and we are not fully occupied. Because, as a well-known executive director of a major multinational said, "L'únic lloc on l'éxit sees abans que el treball es al diccionalesri". I això serveix too for dentistry.
Dr. Manuel Ribera Uribe
Professor gerodontology and special patients
International University of Catalonia