ASTDD is committed to promoting and helping to support state and territorial dental directors in their pursuit of knowledge and skills to foster excellence in oral health program leadership. The organization directly provides/links members to a variety of professional development opportunities. Partial travel or meeting expenses are covered under some of the opportunities.
ASTDD Guidelines for State and Territorial Oral Health Programs, ASTDD Competencies for State Oral Health Programs, reports, and Best Practices to show key components as well as the range of variation in state oral health programs.
Leadership and Professional Development
ASTDD programs, continuing education opportunities and resources for dental director orientation, mentoring, knowledge and skill development, including the National Oral Health Conference.
Links to websites, workbooks, other tools and technical assistance to help states improve capacity in oral health data collection, analysis, dissemination and surveillance.
Reports, resources, Best Practices and examples of strategic plans, oral health plans, oral health summits, head start oral health forums, oral health coalitions and integration of oral health into other programmatic areas.
Policy Development ASTDD works with a broad array of federal, state and local public and private partners to educate decision-makers on dental public health issues and concerns of state dental programs. ASTDD develops and adopts a variety of policy documents including issue briefs, position papers, policy statements and resolutions to reflect the Association’s priorities and stance on dental public health issues.
Links to websites, materials, Best Practices and other resources that will help states develop and implement focused activities in areas such as Maternal and Child Health, community water fluoridation and fluoride programs, sealant programs, safety net dental clinics and mobile-portable systems, School and Adolescent Health, Children with Special Health Care Needs and others.
