AMERICA AT 250 AND ODA AT 160 (PART II)
As I discussed last month, we are celebrating two significant anniversaries in 2026 – the 250th anniversary of the U.S. and the 160th anniversary of the Ohio Dental Association. Last month’s column was the first of a two-part series on these two milestones, where I discussed many of the reasons we should proudly celebrate our country and its rich history. I appreciate all of the positive feedback I got from readers regarding last month’s column. Apparently, I struck a nerve!
America at 250
While being far from perfect, America still gives us all many reasons to celebrate its Semiquincentennial, including that the American system of government is the model for the rest of the world. When the U.S. was founded 250 years ago, there were no democracies like the one America was poised to set up. Traditionally, the predominate forms of government across the globe were monarchies and then totalitarian dictatorships, which rose up in the early 20th century in countries like Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union. However, by the early 1970s more than 20% of the world’s countries had developed democratic governance systems, and today, more than half the countries of the world are classified as democracies.
The American experiment has ignited a wave of democracies across the world which has resulted in nearly 2 billion people who are freer and more prosperous than ever before. That is quite a legacy for our American experiment.
Another reason to celebrate America and its history is because America has consistently stood up against tyranny and for freedom. Specifically, America’s leadership led to the demise of the twin evils of fascism and communism which had engaged in mass atrocities, genocide and suppression of the basic human rights of millions of people during the 20th Century. This is another sterling legacy for our great country and one that is well worth celebrating in 2026.
I also pointed out in last month’s column that the American political and economic system has generated prosperity that has literally transformed America and the rest of the world resulting in better educational attainment, health and life expectancy, greater freedom and better access to basic necessities, the internet, electricity and clean water, not just for Americans but for people across the globe. So, there are many reasons to celebrate our great country on its 250th birthday.
ODA at 160
As part of this American story, I noted in last month’s column that in 1831-32, French historian and philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville took a nine-month tour of America to observe American society under its new form of democratic governance, including examining social conditions and political institutions. The copious notes he took and his reflections on his visit led to the publication of Tocqueville’s seminal book “Democracy in America.”
One of Tocqueville’s most interesting observations was that “Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all minds constantly unite together. Not only do they have commercial and manufacturing associations in which they take part, but they also have a thousand other types” of associations. He believed that this “art of association” was critical to a successful and thriving free society.
Dentists certainly understood the importance and value of forming such associations. Back when Tocqueville visited America, dentistry was not well organized, and dental care was often provided by people with little or no formal training. For too many, dental care meant “tooth pulling” by a barber or blacksmith. The tools were primitive and the science related to oral health was yet undiscovered.
On June 26th and 27th of 1866, 41 dentists met at Naughton Hall in Columbus and developed a Constitution and Bylaws around the goals of creating a statewide association for Ohio dentists. The purpose of this new organization was to advance the dental profession, protect the public, foster fellowship and encourage more formal professional education for dentists.
On those warm June days 160 years ago, Ohio’s statewide dental association – then known as the Ohio State Dental Society – was born. And dentistry in Ohio would never be the same.
This new dental association would have an immediate impact and continue impacting oral health and dentistry in Ohio for the next 160 years. At the Ohio State Dental Society’s founding, Ohio’s dentists drafted and adopted one of the first written codes of ethics for the dental profession. This code directed dentists to treat patients with sympathy, respect fellow dentists and protect the public from charlatans.
This ethical code began the process of putting the dental profession on the road to becoming the respected and trusted profession it is today. Two years later, the Ohio State Dental Society worked to get the Ohio legislature to pass one of the first dental laws. The new law sought to “do away with quackery,” which apparently was quite a problem back in 1868. Many of the leaders of the Ohio State Dental Society served on the original board of dental examiners, which was created by the new law.
Establishing formal dental education programs was a priority for the Ohio State Dental Society back then. In the 1800s, many dentists had no formal training and learned as apprentices. By 1901, Ohio boasted as many as five dental schools, but many were financially strapped and poorly run proprietary schools. The Ohio State Dental Society, working with the board of dental examiners and established universities, sought to stabilize and formalize dental education to ensure the art and science of dentistry was being advanced and taught competently to students. This effort led to the creation of the dental schools that currently exist at both Case Western Reserve University and The Ohio State University. The commitment to high quality dental education in Ohio continues today as exemplified by the newly-established Bitonte College of Dentistry at NEOMED in Rootstown, Ohio.
Ohio dentists also have a long history of working for the underserved – and organized dentistry has facilitated those efforts. In fact, in February of 1941, the first Children’s Dental Health Day in America was held in Cleveland and a week-long children’s dental health event was held in Akron later that same year. These events were designed to draw attention to the importance of dental health for children. Following the example set in Cleveland and Akron, the American Dental Association held the first national observance of Children’s Dental Health Day on Feb. 8, 1949 and it became a weeklong event in 1955. Today, the ADA recognizes February as National Children’s Dental Health Month.
Efforts to ensure patients have access to quality dental care continue today with ODA programs like Give Kids A Smile, the Dental OPTIONS program and Volunteer Connection. The ODA’s advocacy efforts recently resulted in significant reforms of the Ohio dental Medicaid program, including a 93% across-the-board fee increase, which has led to more dentists being able to treat Medicaid-eligible patients and improved access to dental care in Ohio.
When scientific evidence in the first half of the last century suggested that fluoride in drinking water prevents tooth decay, organized dentistry responded. In 1950, the ADA passed a resolution encouraging water fluoridation and over the next two decades, the ODA and local Ohio dental societies advocated to fluoridate water systems across Ohio.
In 1969, the ODA successfully lobbied to have the state legislature enact a law requiring most municipalities to fluoridate their water systems unless they opted out via a local ballot issue. Today, because of the efforts of the ODA, 92% of Ohioans live in communities with fluoridated water systems, which is well above the national average of 67%.
Certain advocates are now working to ban community water fluoridation and two states – Florida and Utah – recently enacted statewide bans. A statewide ban on community water fluoridation (House Bill 182) has been proposed in Ohio as well. The ODA has led the efforts to educate Ohio policymakers on the effectiveness and safety of community water fluoridation, pointing out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared that water fluoridation is one of the top 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th Century for its positive impact on oral health.
The ODA’s commitment to supporting Ohio dentists has never waned in its 160 years of existence. From creating a professional code of ethics at its founding meeting in 1866, to setting initial standards for the nascent dental profession, and developing quality dental education opportunities, Ohio dentists have counted on the ODA for support. That commitment continues today, as thousands of ODA members look to the ODA for their health insurance needs through the ODA Wellness Trust, to save on dental supplies through the OhioDDS program, to get timely and accurate information on legal and regulatory compliance issues, to get assistance in dealing with third-party payer issues and much more.
The ODA is addressing today’s dental workforce issues by engaging with policymakers and Ohio’s 13 CODA-accredited dental hygiene education programs, successfully advocating for expansion of the number of dental hygienists and dental assistants getting trained in Ohio.
The ODA also constantly advocates for dental insurance reform to level the playing field between individual dentists and large insurance companies, including securing passage of the non-covered services reform law and laws requiring insurers to make prompt payment of claims and limiting their ability to attempt to claw back previous payments they’ve made to dentists. The ODA is continuing these insurance reform efforts in the current legislative session by advocating for House Bill 429, which would prohibit dental insurers from “bundling” or “downcoding” insurance claims submitted by dentists, and House Bill 845, which would prohibit dental insurers from: (1) leasing their dental provider networks to other plans without first obtaining the participating dentist’s consent, (2) denying payment of a claim that the insurer previously authorized, and (3) requiring dentists to accept virtual credit card payments without the dentist’s consent.
So, just as America has matured as a country, so has the dental profession. As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026, let’s also remember the ODA’s 160th birthday. As Tocqueville noted shortly after America’s founding and shortly before the birth of the ODA, success in America and the “art of association” go hand in hand. We are living proof of that.
