San Diego County Dental Society

The San Diego County Dental Society (SDCDS) was established in 1887, and, since then, it's grown to become the largest organization of its kind in the San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SDCDS comprises 70 percent of practicing dentists in the San Diego area, or about 2,000 in number, and is recognized as the leading organization for promoting oral-health awareness to the public and for the advocacy of oral health legislation at the local and state level.

Members of the SDCDS benefit from a wide range of professional and practical offerings, and, likewise, the SDCDS reaches out to the greater community by participating in charitable programs offering free and low-cost preventive dental care to low-income residents. All members of the SDCDS are also automatically members of its state and national counterparts, respectively the California Dental Association (CDA) and the American Dental Association (ADA).

Among the host of benefits that the SDCDS offers its members are a slate of continuing education courses, scheduled throughout the year in the San Diego area. Dentists can enrich their post-graduate practical knowledge with coursework in such areas as periodontics, endodontics, patient-dentist communication and infection control. Members also receive both the ADA and CDA professional journals, and can take advantage of the organization's endorsed programs and services. These include demographic site analysis; equipment leasing and financing; dental patient financing loans for academic, professional and equity use; spore check systems; and waste management.

Founded in 1992, the San Diego Dental Foundation was set up by the SDCDS as the region's premier charitable organization dedicated to oral health education and community programs as well as to promote a public understanding of oral health. As state and federal funding for the provision of low- and no-cost care indigent populations has decreased, the Foundation has sought to channel its resources towards this purpose.