Leadership and Legacy: Oral Health Milestones in Maternal and Child Health Promotion and Prevention OHRC
Child receiving oral health care. Reproduced  with permission from the American Dental Association. All rights reserved.The Dental Career Development Committee revitalized use of dental officers by recruiting women and minority oral health professionals into the Commissioned Corps. Reproduced with permission from Farmingdale State College.

1983

  • U.S. Public Health Service Dental Professional Advisory Committee created

Background

The Dental Career Development Committee, the predecessor of the Dental Professional Advisory Committee (DePAC), was created in 1960 upon reorganization of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). PHS created the Bureau of Community Health and within that the Division of Dental Public Health and Resources. Rapidly expanding PHS programs required an increase in trained dental officers. The Dental Career Development Committee established a method to ensure optimal use of dental officers. In 1987, Surgeon General Everett C. Koop launched a major effort to revitalize the Commissioned Corps, including recruitment, especially of women and minorities; assignment; career development; and communication. He created a framework for professional advisory committees for each professional category of PHS. These committees met to address matters of career development and work force and to provide the chief professional officer with input on any matter particular to that discipline.

Impact

DePAC provides advice and consultation to the Surgeon General of PHS on issues related to oral health programs and professional practices of civil service and PHS Commission Corps dentists. DePAC offers similar assistance to the PHS chief dental officer, and, upon request, to PHS dental program directors. DePAC functions in a resource and advisory capacity to assist in the development, coordination, and evaluation of activities related to its professional discipline in PHS.


Source

Gerrie N. 1961. Dental Officer Career Development. Public Health Reports 76(11):1029–1033:

Koop CE. 1989. Remarks by C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D., Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service. Presented at the 100th Anniversary of the P.H.S. Commissioned Corps, January 4, 1989, Washington, DC.

Koop CE, Ginzburg, HM. 1989. The Revitalization of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Public Health Reports 104(2):105–110.

News from the field. 1960. American Journal of Public Health 50(10):1641–1652.

Personal communication with Stephen Corbin, 2011.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General. History of the Office of the Surgeon General [website].

U.S. Public Health Service. Dentists in the United State Public Health Service: DePAC—Mission and Goals [website].

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