This year, 2025, marks the 50th year of publication for this journal and my first as its editor. Operative Dentistry began as a quarterly journal in the Winter of 1976, following in the footsteps of the Journal of the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators, which had enjoyed a successful 18-year publication run. Our new journal was the product of collaboration between the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators and the newly formed Academy of Operative Dentistry. Its purpose, as articulated by its inaugural editor, Dr. Ian Hamilton, was
An ambitious undertaking, and a tall order, but over the years the journal has met its goals. The list of previous editors is not long — only six— but is truly a “Who’s Who” in Operative Dentistry: Drs. Ian Hamilton, David Bales, Maxwell Anderson, Richard McCoy, Michael Cochran, and Jeffrey Platt, who steps down after 15 years as our longest-serving...