<h2 style="text-align: center">Advancing Care on the Homefront</h2>

For many ADA members and staff, advocating for the dental and oral health needs of active-duty service members, veterans, and their families has long been an important initiative. As early as the pre-Civil War era, dentists were pushing for the integration of dentistry into U.S. military health care.

It took more than 40 years of dedicated effort by those in both the dental field and the military to see oral care fully incorporated into military health services.

In 1948, members of the ADA's Council on Federal Dental Services met with officials of the military and naval medical and dental departments for the very first meeting "of any significance" between the two groups. This "led eventually to the establishment of a sound basis for negotiation of our mutual problems and interests."

Progress has continued since then, although not always quickly. The ADA and its members continue to champion improved dental care, both for those in the field and at home. This exhibit showcases items from the ADA's archival collections that highlight those advocacy efforts.

<p style="margin-left: 1.25rem; text-align: left; padding-left: 0.25rem;">"When we went into war, the focus became keeping people alive but I knew we had to find a way to repair them as well. Regenerative medicine sounds like science fiction, but it’s real."</p>

"Not until every veteran dental officer has again found his place in the ranks of the profession will the wartime tasks of the members of organized dentistry reach a successful conclusion."

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<h4 style="margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: -.5rem">ADA Materials</h4>

• Special Issue Devoted to Problems of Returning Dental Officers
• Postwar Plans of Dentists in Service
• Economic Considerations in Reestablishing a Dental Practice
• President’s Message: When the Dental Officer Returns/List of Navy Dental Officers Who Died or Were Killed During World War II/List of Army Dental Officers Who Died or Were Killed During World War II
• Educational Opportunities for the Returning Veteran
• Dental Manpower of Minnesota in the Postwar Period
• Dental Materials in Wartime
• Changes in Drugs, Chemicals and Devices During the War Period
• Opportunities in the U. S. Public Health Service, Veterans Administration and Army and Navy Dental Corps
• Opportunities in Public Health
• Opportunities for Dental Officers in Education and Research
• Industrial Dentistry as a Career
• Who Should Enter Dental School?
• Wartime Legislation
• Analysis of the G. I. Bill of Rights
• The National Board of Dental Examiners
• Services of the Bureau of Public Relations Available to the Veteran
• Check-List of Dental Books, 1942–1945
• Preparedness and War Activities of the American Dental Association: a Résumé/Surplus Property for Veteran Dentists*/History of the Army Dental Corps During World War II
• Activities of the Army and Navy Committee of the American Dental Association
• Dental Service at the United States Naval Academy
• Examination Requirements of the State Boards of Dental Examiners/Dates of State Board Dental Examinations for 1946/Secretaries of State Dental Associations/Life Insurance Problems of the Returning Dental Veteran
• List of Army Dental Officers Separated from Service
• The Right to “Gripe”: The Fifth Freedom/Free Classified Advertising for Veteran Dentists/Five Late Announcements from Washington/News of Dentistry/Meetings and Announcements/Directory