MAKE SURE YOUR DENTIST IS AN ADA MEMBER!: ADA Members Adhere to Strict Code of Ethics and Conduct. You should make sure you are SEEING AN ADA MEMBER DENTIST! Visit ADA Find-A-Dentist to Find One Near YOU
Ninth District Headquarters Office - Hawthorne, NY

2026 Ninth District President

Dr. Bharat Joshi

RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY!

3 EASY WAYS TO PAY 1 ONLINE: nysdental.org/renew 2 MAIL: Return dues stub and payment 3 PHONE: 1-800-255-2100

NYSDAPAC

NYSDA’s fully owned and operated Political Action Committee. With your support, NYSDAPAC will strengthen our political influence and ensure your voice is heard statewide and beyond.

2026 Member Benefits Guide

Explore Your Member Benefits — The 2026 Member Benefits Guide is now available! See everything NYSDA offers and get a quick overview with our At-A-Glance one-pager.

Member Assistance Program (MAP)

Life comes with challenges—but your FREE, confidential Member Assistance Program (MAP) is here to help. Available to you, your household, and your staff, MAP offers one-on-one short-term counseling plus resources for mental health, stress management, financial wellness, and life coaching. Download the app today to get started.

Welcome to the Ninth District Dental Association

The Ninth District Dental Society was formed in 1909 and renamed to the Ninth District Dental Association in 2002. We have a membership of over 1200 dentists in 5 counties: Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam.

In its quest to serve both the public and the profession, the Ninth District embodies the highest ideals.

The mission of the 9th District Dental Association is to serve and support its members and the public by improving the oral health of our community through Advocacy, Continuing Education and Camaraderie.


The 9th Board approved creating a High School Career Day video to promote the dental field as a whole! Here's the link: 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kk10wFBk5MXT4CeitvzzCSXKPrVFzz73/view?usp=drive_link

 

Please share it with any Principal or Guidance Counselor you may have a relationship with!


Come join your colleagues!

 

New Dentist Reception

Wednesday, October 21, 2026
6:30 - 9:00 pm

Captain Lawrence Brewery
444 Saw Mill River Rd
Elmsford, NY  10523
914-741-2337

To register, email:
stephan@ninthdistrict.org

We Hope to See You There!!

Bharat Joshi, D.D.S.
President

Lana Hashim, D.D.S.
President - New Dentist Committee

And don't forget to register for Dr. Amrita Patel's CE Course:

Live Webinar:  “Demystifying Dental Benefits” Tuesday, September 29, 2026 – 7-9 pm (Objective 12 Practice Management / 2 CE)

Register

 Instructor:           Amrita Patel, D.D.S.

 Synopsis:  Dental insurance touches every single patient conversation and every line of your P&L, yet most dentists, regardless of how long they've been in practice, were never actually taught how the system works. This course pulls back the curtain on dental benefits: how plans are structured, how codes get created and valued, where fee schedules come from, and where the gaps between "covered" and "paid" quietly erode practice revenue and patient trust.

 Drawing on years of first-hand experience navigating dental benefits from both the clinical and business sides, this session goes beyond the front-desk basics. New dentists will walk away finally understanding a system that clinical training never covered. Seasoned owners and multi-practice leaders will leave with sharper language for fee negotiations, a clearer read on where their practice is leaving money on the table, and concrete strategies for protecting fee integrity as insurance pressures intensify. Whether you're building your first associate contract or running a multi-site group, this is the insurance education dental school skipped: built for every stage of the career, not just the start of it.

 

Health Secretary RFK Jr. to target water fluoridation

Apr 11, 2025
BY Dan Rivoli New York City
PUBLISHED 8:31 PM ET Apr. 09, 2025

New York City is said to have the best tasting tap water in the world. Doctors and medical experts say it’s also good for New Yorkers’ teeth because it has fluoride in it.

“It doesn’t impact the taste, doesn’t impact anything except the benefits of washing the teeth, particularly in children, and reducing the number of cavities,” Dr. Richard Valachovic, with NYU Dentistry Center for Oral Health Policy and Management, said.


What You Need To Know

  • New York City has added fluoride to its water supply since 1965

  • Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is asking CDC to no longer endorse fluoridated water

  • Mayor Eric Adams supports keeping fluoride in the city's drinking water

Dr. Valachovic spoke to NY1 after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin took a new, skeptical look at communities that add fluoride to their drinking water.

There will be new studies on it, and Kennedy said he’d get the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to no longer recommend it and undertake new studies.

“You can achieve that benefit from brushing your teeth and the era of fluoridated toothpastes and mouthwashes — it makes no sense to have fluoride in our water,” Kennedy said at a news conference this week.

“We’re prepared to act based on the science,” Zeldin said.

They’re relying on a report last August from the National Toxicology Program at HHS.

The report says “with moderate confidence, that higher estimated fluoride exposures” — that is, higher than 1.5 milligrams per liter — “are consistently associated with lower IQ in children.” And that “associations between lower total fluoride exposure and children’s IQ remain unclear.”

The fluoride in New York City’s water is well below that level at 0.7 milligrams per liter and well below maximum levels allowed by New York State and the federal EPA.

“There’s no evidence that there’s any impact at that level,” Valachovic said.

Brushing with toothpaste containing fluoride also has no impact, according to Valachovic, who says the benefits are apparent.

“We’re not seeing the levels of cavities that are seen in other cities with similar demographics that don’t have water fluoridation,” he said.

Dr. Prabha Krishnan, president of the New York State Dental Association and who practices in Queens, said the difference between patients from other countries is clear.

“We’ve seen patients that have come from other countries that have rampant cavities,” she said.

But the wonders of fluoridated water had not been so apparent to Mayor Eric Adams. Back in November, he said, “I’m not too familiar with the whole conversation around fluoride, what makes it good or bad.”

He said he’d defer to his agencies’ experts. A spokeswoman for the mayor said they still hold the position today that fluoridated water is beneficial to New Yorkers.


Latest News Around the Ninth


Around the Ninth District