About Jeffrey B. Dalin, DDS

I was born and raised in St. Louis. I received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Emory University and my D.D.S. degree from Indiana University School of Dentistry. After graduating from dental school in 1980, I began working with my father in his dental practice. In the years after my graduation, I have earned a fellowship in Geriatric Dentistry from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry and fellowships from the American College of Dentists, the Academy of General Dentistry, the International College of Dentists, and the Academy of Dentistry International. I served as the editor of St. Louis Dentistry, the official 40-50 page bimonthly publication of our dental society, for twenty years and currently serve as the media spokesperson for the Greater St. Louis Dental Society and Chairperson of the dental society's Critical Issues Response Team and Communications Committee. I have been a monthly columnist for the internationally distributed Dental Economics magazine for 15 years. I am the co-founder of the Give Kids A Smile program. In 2001, I served on an Outreach Committee from the Greater St. Louis Dental Society, which met to try to come up with ways to “give back” to those who have no access to dental care. After months of discussion, I came up with the concept and model for bringing in children, ages 5 to 12, and performing comprehensive dentistry on them. It is unacceptable that thousands of children are in pain, won’t smile, and do not receive dental care. Children are suffering and dental professionals have the opportunity to correct this problem. In February 2002, we brought together hundreds of dental and non-dental volunteers and performed over $100,000 worth of dentistry on 345 children. Since this program began, over 14,000 St. Louis area children have received over $7.2 million dollars of dental care. This program has won local, state, and national awards and recognition and has been adopted by the American Dental Association as its National Children’s Access Day each February. I am currently the chairperson of the National Advisory Board of the American Dental Associations's ""Give Kids a Smile"" program. I have won numerous dental journalism awards from the International College of Dentists and the American Dental Association. I have also won Awards of Merit and Distinguished Service and the Gold Medal Award from the Greater St. Louis Dental Society; a Dentist of the Year Award from the Missouri Dental Association; and a Presidential Citation from the American Dental Association. I have been recognized by the Missouri Senate and Missouri House of Representatives and have won awards for my work with Give Kids A Smile from the Shils Foundation, Bank of American Foundation, FOCUS St. Louis, and the Progressive Youth Commission. Most recently, I received the Maynard Hine Award from the Indiana Dental Association, Alumnus of the Year from Indiana University School of Dentistry and the first ever American Dental Association's Smile Champion Outstanding Oral Health Professional Volunteer Award (which they have now named The Jeffrey Dalin Smile Champion Award). I love to travel, watch sports (particularly hockey), going to movies, going out to some of St. Louis's great restaurants (and we do have great food here), and tinkering around on the computer with any free time I have left after getting done with all of the work involved with my practice, getting all of my writing duties finished, and spending time with my wife and three kids...in other words, not a whole lot of extra time!