Over the past eight months, our leadership team has been doing some big-picture thinking — how we grow our reach, stay grounded in community voices, and keep pushing the idea we all believe in: oral health is overall health. Like we did in 2019 when we leaned hard into oral health equity, and in 2021 when we built our community-engaged framework, we took a close look at today’s public health landscape, where the gaps are, and where AIDPH can be most useful.
So here’s the news: the American Institute of Dental Public Health is changing our name to the American Institute on Disparities in Public Health (AIDPH). It’s a natural next step and reflects the work we’re already doing—supporting integrated, whole-person health shaped by what communities actually need.
For more than a decade, AIDPH has been a national leader in advancing oral health through a public health lens, and that is not changing. Oral health remains our foundation. But the evidence, including our own research, keeps showing how tightly connected oral health is with mental health, women’s health, and chronic disease, especially in underserved communities. Our work has already been moving in that direction.
This name change simply aligns our identity with the work we’ve been building toward and allows us to address health disparities more holistically, while keeping oral health at the center.
Under this expanded mission, AIDPH will continue our oral health work while strengthening our focus on:
- Mental health and its role in whole-person health
- Women’s health and women in the public health workforce
- Chronic diseases most connected to oral health
- How these issues intersect in the communities we serve
We’re excited for what this means and grateful you’re part of this community with us.
Staying True to Our Values and Communities
While the name is changing, who we are and what we stand for isn’t. Our updated mission, empowering our community to eliminate health disparities through research, education, and advocacy, really just puts words to what we’ve always believed: access to care matters, health decisions should be grounded in evidence, and community voices have to lead the way.
We’re also continuing our commitment to building the public health workforce. That means more continuing education, leadership development, and training that reflect both oral health and the broader public health issues professionals are facing every day.
And just as importantly, our research, advocacy, and education will stay focused on communities that too often get left out — including veterans, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people in rural areas, and people with disabilities.
In other words, the name is evolving, but the heart of AIDPH isn’t changing. We are excited to take this next step in our evolution and are thankful to be in community with all of you through this next stage of growth.
