Myron Allukian Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H.

Myron Allukian Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions in Community Dental Programs 2004 Recipient

A tireless and fearless leader, Dr. Allukian represents the gold standard for devoting a career to improving oral health. During his 34 years as dental director for the City of Boston, he achieved community water fluoridation for the 2.5 million people of Greater Boston and transformed the outmoded city program into a network of health center oral health programs with over 100,000 patient visits a year. In 1984, he developed one of the first oral health programs in the country for people who are homeless and became a national leader for access to care for persons with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Allukian helped restore the Medicaid dental program for adults in his state at least three times and chaired the Surgeon General’s Work Group on Fluoridation and Oral Health for the 1990 Objectives for the Nation, which resulted in oral health being incorporated into Healthy People 2000. He was the first Vietnam veteran and second dentist to serve as president of the American Public Health Association. A past president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry and ABDPH, a founding member of AACDP, and a member of the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Allukian has been called “the social conscience of dentistry.”