ADA Wins in 2024

• Introduced or advocated more than 150 bills or regulations during the second session of the 118th Congress. Some notable accomplishments in 2024 include efforts to expand the oral health care workforce, enhance access to care for underserved populations including veterans, and improve the dental insurance landscape.
• Issued more than $4.25 million in State Public Affairs grants to state dental societies to support insurance reform, bolster workforce development and champion improvements to Medicaid.
• From 2018 to 2024, state societies successfully advocated for 164 new insurance reform laws, tackling key issues like network leasing, non-covered services and dental loss ratio.
• Since 2023, 22 states have introduced dental loss ratio bills that prioritize patient care over profits. Eleven states have enacted medical loss ratio laws that adopt transparency or require insurers to spend a minimum amount of money on dental care.
• Secured long-sought student loan reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and the Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program.
• Held our largest Lobby Day ever with more than 1,200 students and dentists advocating on Capitol Hill. We were joined by 700 students from 55 schools, and nearly all dental specialty organizations were represented. We also had the largest turnout of new dentists in Lobby Day history.

• Boosted the dental workforce and improved access to care by providing more than $700,000 in grants.
• The Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact legislation expanded the number of states which enacted the law to include 10 states, enabling more professionals to serve the communities that need their care.

• The first-ever “Dentistry’s Role in Complete Health” symposium welcomed a standing-room only crowd of dental and medical professionals who gathered to explore oral-systemic health and its implications for the health care community. The symposium was the ADA’s most-attended live CE event prior to SmileCon® and it returns to Chicago in 2025.
• Partnered with The Children’s Oral Health Institute to fight childhood tooth decay by sponsoring 20,000 lunch boxes as part of the Lessons in a Lunch Box program, which brings oral health literacy to life for 2nd and 3rd graders nationwide.
• In 2024, the ADA Foundation’s Give Kids A Smile® program provided more than $14.7 million in donated dental care to 310,000 children at approximately 1,300 events held nationwide. This impact was made possible by the generous volunteerism of 4,500 dentists and 18,500 dental team members, and the invaluable support and product donations from corporate sponsors, Colgate and Henry Schein.
• The ADA Foundation’s Give Veterans A Smile (GVAS), a new initiative to help address veterans’ unmet oral health needs, launched at SmileCon 2024.

• Updated radiation safety guidelines removing the need for abdominal and thyroid shielding became JADA’s most downloaded paper, spurring national media conversations and coverage by major outlets.
• The first clinical practice guidelines on acute oral pain management for adults and adolescents, published in JADA (Feb 2024), marked a breakthrough in combatting opioid misuse. Endorsed by 5 medical and dental associations, they were the result of collaboration between the ADA and two dental schools.
• The ADA Forsyth Institute (AFI) received a $6.2 million grant from NIDCR to develop smart materials using AI, marking one of the first applications of this technology to advance basic research in oral health.
• Leaders from research, industry, academia and more gathered at the sold-out ADA Forsyth dentech 2024 to drive global health innovation. The event featured panel discussions, networking and crowned two winners in the Tech Showcase.

• More than 111 interviews were arranged with ADA spokespersons covering topics that range from healthy hygiene habits to new recommendations around clinical care and oral health issues on Capitol Hill.
• ADA Dental Sound Bites™ podcast won 4 national awards, surpassed 180,000 downloads and continues to bring you real talk on the biggest issues facing dentists today.
• On social media, engaged more than 6,500 viewers in expert-led Instagram Live events and partnered with rising dentist and dental student influencers with a reach of over 935,000 followers. We kept the dental community informed with 179 real-time news updates through ADANow and ICYMI social media updates, resulting in 314,000 video views and reaching 841,000 people. Like, love, share or DM us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube.
• Connected 8,000+ dentists and dental professionals at SmileCon® 2024 with 300+ CE offerings, wellness sessions, speakers and networking opportunities. Advocates, professors and rising stars in organized dentistry were among 2024’s winners of the ADA 10 Under 10 Awards, who were recognized during SmileCon’s first Changemakers Celebration.

• Members and students can now get a personalized mental health assessment in just one minute using the Dental Well-Being Index. This validated and anonymous tool from the Mayo Clinic allows users to track their well-being journeys over time.
• Worked to eliminate stigmatizing mental health questions from licensure applications. States like Texas, Virginia, Iowa, Minnesota and Oregon have already made important changes, and more are on the way.
• Expanded wellness resources on the ADA Member App and at ADA.org/wellness, including exclusive guided stretches that improve your day-to-day ergonomics in and out of the operatory.

• Launched new endorsement for Practice Financing with Panacea Financial offering ADA members a 0.25% ($1,750 annually) interest rate discount on any dental practice loan and $0 origination fees on any dental practice loan ($3,570 value). Total ADA member value is projected at more than $15,000+ over the lifetime of the loan.*
• 120 ADA dentists completed their free 30-minute student loan repayment consultation from Laurel Road Student Loan specialists at GradFin.**

* Panacea Financial is a division of Primis, Member FDIC.
0.25% rate discount for Panacea Financial Practice Loans: Terms and conditions apply. Offer good for practice financing customers only and subject to lender approval. To receive the offer, you must meet Panacea Financial underwriting criteria and be an ADA member. Offer good for new customers only. Offer cannot be combined with any other offers, except any discount for making automatic payments. Offer subject to change.
Lifetime benefit calculation estimation based on a loan size of $750,000 over a 10-year term with a 0.25% interest rate discount and zero origination fees. A borrower’s actual savings could be higher or lower depending on the size and term of their practice loan.
** GradFin and Laurel Road are brands of KeyBank N.A.