- The American Dental Association has been driving dentistry forward by supporting dental professionals with services and resources
- ADA’s focus focused on pandemic relief in 2020 and advocated for dental legislation to ensure dentists and patients could remain safe
- The American Dental Association’s goal is to ensure optimal health conditions for all people and addresses equity including community water fluoridation, health literacy, Medicaid advocacy, and more
About American Dental Association
The American Dental Association (ADA) powers the profession of dentistry to advance the overall oral health of the public. With 163,000+ members, ADA has been driving dentistry forward for 160 years. The American Dental Association promotes the art and science of dentistry by supporting dental professionals with services and resources and advocates for public health.
With the outbreak of the coronavirus, the ADA met the immediate challenge and excelled in providing its 163,000+ members with useful, up-to-date information and tangible support throughout the pandemic. Acting as a support system for dental teams and a trusted driver of evidence-based information for the public was ADA’s top priority. There were countless unknowns early in the pandemic, and the ADA stepped up by issuing guidance based on the science available at the time, toolkits, and resources to keep dental teams and their patients safe as they navigated dental care, an essential health service, during COVID.
Team members jumped into overdrive to develop the ADA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Center for Dentists, which served as a digital dashboard for all COVID-19 resources and content. The ADA shared its resources on social media, with media outlets, through email blasts, digital events (such as clinical and economic impact webinars), and on ADA publications, ensuring that all dentists had access to critical information.
Efforts also included rigorous legislative advocacy. More than 150,000 dentists engaged in government outreach, and nearly 600,000 emails were sent to Capitol Hill during deliberations on COVID-19 relief packages. As a result of ADA’s advocacy, key provisions benefitting dental practices and patients were included COVID-19 relief legislation such as the CARES Act. Dentistry was elevated to #4 on FEMA’s list of priority recipients of PPE, and the ADA distributed more than 4.1 million N95 masks and 833,000+ gowns to more than 64,000 dentists across the country.
The Association also positioned itself as a leader during the public health crisis, providing the dental perspective to agencies such as FEMA, HHS, and the CDC and educating consumers via MouthHealthy.org. Market data have indicated that the ADA is second only to the CDC as the most trusted voice for patients seeking assurance about the safety of dental visits during COVID-19.
As the pandemic has evolved, so has the ADA, which has now deployed a three-pillar vaccine strategy. The work continues, but to date, the ADA's COVID-19 response has seen unprecedented success.
American Dental Association won a Silver Stevie Award for COVID-19 Response Categories - Most Valuable Non-Profit Response in The 2021 American Business Awards®.
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