JOSEPH P. CROWLEY DISTINGUISHED DENTIST AWARD: DR. MATTHEW MESSINA
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 will receive 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.
“Dr. Matthew J. Messina’s distinguished career is a model of leadership, professionalism, ethical conduct, and community service,” wrote Dr. Mark Wenzel, program director of the General Practice Residency at The Ohio State University, in his nomination letter. “His contributions to the field of dentistry, both as a clinician and as a leader in organized dentistry, make him an ideal candidate for the 2025 Joseph P. Crowley Distinguished Dentist Award. Dr. Messina’s leadership in shaping dental education, his commitment to providing care for underserved populations, his service to the profession, and his dedication to maintaining the highest standards of ethics and professionalism have earned him the respect and admiration of his colleagues. He is a true ambassador for the dental profession, and his ongoing contributions continue to inspire those around him.”
Messina said he is deeply honored and thankful to receive the award.
“To receive the highest recognition of the Ohio Dental Association represents the acknowledgement that my peers feel that I have accomplished significant things during my career,” he said. “I also view this recognition as a challenge to continue making a difference in the future. I feel that I have so much more that I would like to achieve for our profession and I don’t ever see a time when I won’t be engaged with dentists, students and the public on behalf of dentistry.”
Messina said he decided he wanted to become a dentist in junior high school because his orthodontist seemed to love his job.
“He was always happy and seemed to have a great relationship with his staff and patients,” he said. “It looked like a fun way to spend each day at work, and to make a difference in helping people smile.”
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 said his favorite part about being a dentist is being able to write his own story and make an impact on other people’s lives.
“I’m a firm believer in the value of writing your own story,” he said. “Dentistry continues to allow all of us the opportunity to determine who we want to be and how we want to practice. The story also changes and evolves as we grow. The choices that are available as a dentist keep the career always exciting and fresh. I love having the ability to make a difference in someone’s day with each visit. Working with cancer patients has made it very clear that we should savor each day for the gift that it is. What I am doing now is some of the most difficult dentistry that I have ever done, but also some of the most rewarding. As dentists, we have the ability to give someone their dignity and humanity that has been taken away by disease, whether that is cancer, periodontal disease, or decay. That offers us the chance for incredible fulfillment every day.”
Messina is also 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.
“Over these 22 years, that means I conservatively have over 250,000 words in print in the ODA Today. Those columns are my lasting influence on dentistry in Ohio,” he said.
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.
Messina said he thinks organized dentistry is important because dentists can accomplish more working together.
“As a solo private practitioner, I realize how isolating the practice of dentistry can be. Membership in organized dentistry gives you colleagues and friends that help us succeed and have fun along the way. Dentists are a diverse group, but what brings us all together is our love of the profession. Organized dentistry gives us the ability to combine the talents and opinions of a majority of dentists for the good of the profession and the people who count on us for their oral health. Working together, we can speak with a strong, loud voice, and accomplish more than any of us could working alone. As they say, no one is as smart as all of us!”
Messina received the ODA’s Callahan Memorial Student Award for graduating first in his dental school class at OSU and he received the ODA’s N. Wayne Hyatt Rising Star Award in 1997. He has received several awards for being an outstanding instructor at OSU and received the Pierre Fauchard Academy Distinguished Dentist Award and the Greater Cleveland Dental Society Ervin Mason Distinguished Dentist Award, among others. He is a fellow in the International College of Dentists, American College of Dentists and Pierre Fauchard Academy.
Outside of dentistry, Messina enjoys writing. He has written two novels and is currently working on his next book.
Messina is thankful for his wife, Denise, who has been with him throughout his career.
“She is an accomplished hygienist and educator,” she said. “In fact, she’s been teaching for almost 32 years now, both at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland and then at OSU. We practiced together clinically for nearly 30 years and speak together to my dental students about running a dental practice and managing staff. I’m excited that we’re presenting a program together at the ODA meeting this year on communicating effectively with your patients about fluoride and other potentially controversial subjects.”
They have three children, Caitlin, a physical therapist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus; Mike who is on faculty at UCLA as an emergency medicine physician; and Brian, a consultant for Deloitte.
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.
