Columbus dentist receives Ohio Dental Association Joseph P. Crowley Distinguished Dentist Award
Dr. Matthew Messina is the 2025 recipient of the Ohio Dental Association Joseph P. Crowley Distinguished Dentist Award.
Dr. Matthew Messina is committed to advancing the dental profession through his leadership in organized dentistry and dedication to educating the next generation of dental students. For his efforts, he received the 2025 Ohio Dental Association Joseph P. Crowley Distinguished Dentist Award on Friday, Sept. 26 at the Callahan Celebration of Excellence, held in conjunction with the 159th ODA Annual Session.
Messina earned his DDS from The Ohio State University in 1987 and went on to complete a General Practice Residency at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. In 1988, he purchased a private practice in Berea, which grew and eventually moved to Fairview Park in 1999. In 2017, he was invited to join the practice at The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, to continue to practice and teach. He currently treats patients in an outpatient clinic in Upper Arlington and as the director of the Dental Oncology Clinic for OSU, and he teaches practice management and clinical patients care skills. Over the past eight years, he has helped Ohio State launch three dental clinics.
Messina is dedicated to volunteerism. In 2023, he led a team of dental students providing humanitarian dental care to refugees in Jordan. He also helps provide care to underserved patients locally as a Medicaid provider.
Messina has been involved with organized dentistry since he was a dental student, where he served as the OSU ASDA president and the Region 6 trustee for ASDA. After graduating, he began volunteering with the Greater Cleveland Dental Society and served as president in 1999-2000. After moving to Columbus, he joined the Columbus Dental Society and served as president in 2024.
He has served on many councils and committees at all levels of organized dentistry and as a delegate to the ODA and ADA. He served on and chaired the ADA Commission on the Young Professional (which became the Committee on the New Dentist). He also served on the ADA Council on Government Affairs and was named to the ADA ElderCare Task Force. He has served as an ADA Consumer Advisor since 1995 and has been executive editor for the ODA since 2003.
Throughout his career, he has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today Show. He has been interviewed on CNN and National Public Radio. He has also provided comments on dental health and related subjects for USA TODAY, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Web MD, and Prevention Magazine.
Outside of dentistry, Messina enjoys writing. He has written two novels and is currently working on his next book.
The Joseph P. Crowley Distinguished Dentist Award is the ODA’s most prestigious award. It is given to a leader in the profession committed to the advancement of dentistry who is dedicated and committed to organized dentistry at the local, state and national level.
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Contact: David Owsiany, ODA Executive Director
Phone: 614-486-2700
Email: david@oda.org
Photos available upon request
