The Practice and Infrastructure of Dental Public Health in the United States

Dental public health is a unique and challenging American Dental Association-recognized specialty because the patient is the entire community or population, such as a school, neighborhood, city, state, or the nation, with a focus on vulnerable populations. Limited resources are maximized through prevention, policies, programs, and organized community efforts to respond to great unmet needs. Although dental public health professionals are few in number, millions of people every day have better oral health because of these professionals, who work on the local, state, and national level.