The National Dental Association celebrates 81st anniversary: group escalates fight for healthier teeth among young blacks

Ebony, March, 1994

The National Dental Association (NDA), the largest and oldest Black organization of oral health professionals, was founded in 1913 by 29 Black dentists who were barred from membership in White professional groups. Their goal was to provide a forum for practicing Black dentists to enhance their skill and provide affordable dental care and education to the disenfranchised.

Today, 81 years later, the NDA has 6,000 members in 48 chapters worldwide. A primary concern of the group is attracting more Black students, particularly Black males, to choose dentistry as a career. "We have a 12 percent Black population in this country, but only 4 percent of the nation's dentists are Black," says NDA President Chester A. Aikens, D.D.S. "So we need to encourage them [students] by offering scholarship and increasing the awareness of Opportunities outside the private practice in research, public health and corporate America."

From the age of 12, Dr. Aikens a Jacksonville, Fla., practitioner, developed an interest in dentistry by reading encyclopedias. He says that stories about excruciating pain during a dental visit and fears of infection are exaggerated. We try to make the dental experience as positive as possible. The mode of treatment now has improved so dramatically that discomfort and pain are virtually nonexistent," says Dr. Aikens, a Howard University College of Dentistry alumnus. "We are very concerned about preventing the spread of disease in the dental office. We protect each other by wearing gloves and masks and following rigorous guidelines for infection control and sterilization."

Besides recruiting students through an educational video and a high school mentoring program, the NDA battles for the inclusion of oral health for African-American children and adults in President Clinton's health-care reform package. Dental reform will be among the topics discussed at the National Dental Association's 81st convention at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans from July 21 to 27.

A highlight of the week-long event will be the 2nd Annual Women's Health Symposium scheduled for July 21 to 23. Women's health experts from across the country will convene to focus attention on vital women's issues.

The National Dental Association is the parent organization of the Student National Dental Association, the National Dental Hygienists Association, the National Dental Assistants Association and the Auxiliary to the National Dental Association. It promotes dentistry in two well-received publications. Flossline is a quarterly newsletter that includes information on upcoming events and other association activities. The Journal of the National Dental Association is a quarterly technical journal to which members submit technical articles on research and advances in the oral health field.

In 1976, the National Dental Association Foundation was formed as a nonprofit entity organized to pursue charitable, educational and scientific research endeavors. Despite its limited resources during its initial years, the foundation still managed to contribute more than $30,000 to student research and scholarship programs at Howard University College of Dentistry and Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. Through a partnership with the Colgate-Palmolive Co., the dental colleges at Howard, Meharry and Morehouse are currently receiving a $1 million grant for dental research over five years.

Established in 1990, the National Dental Association Foundation/Colgate-Palmolive Scholarship Fund provides financial aid to African-Americans and underrepresented minorities pursuing careers as dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants. Dr. Roosevelt Brown, president, NDA Foundation, says that "since 1990, over $400,000 has been awarded to 356 students from across the country."

In 1991, the National Dental Association Foundation joined forces with Colgate-Palmolive in an innovative, multicultural program called "Bright Smiles, Bright Futures." Thousands of inner-city youths have been exposed to oral hygiene education through its in-school presentations, mobile van programs and community activities. National Dental Association dentists from local chapters provide free dental screenings to children in shelters for the homeless, inner-city schools, churches, day-care centers, boys and girls clubs and other community sites in Philadelphia, Oakland, Calif., and New York City.

Community outreach programs have been instrumental in the growing influence of the NDA, Every summer during the Black Family Reunion Celebration and Black Expo, NDA members give free dental screenings to thousands of participants.

For many years, NDA volunteers have held expeditions in developing countries that are in dire need of dental care. Teams of dentists, students, hygienists and assistants have worked for weeks at a time in Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana.

Through its scholarship, research and support programs, the NDA will ensure continuing service into the future by actively promoting the oral health-care field as a viable profession for African-Americans and other minority students.