New Deal Accomplishment: Millions of free dental examinations & treatments for low-income Americans


Above: Very early on there was a New Deal concern for dental health. These photos show dental health projects conducted by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) between 1933 and 1934. The exact nature of these projects is not described, but they were probably designed to teach children good brushing habits, at CWA-run nursery schools and/or dental clinics. Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: A CWA dental clinic in New Jersey. Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: "CWA Dental Clinic No. 2," a lithograph by Elizabeth Olds (1896-1991), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1933-1934. Image from the Nebraska State Historical Society.


Above: This child is receiving dental care at a WPA clinic in New Orleans, 1936. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: The WPA also operated mobile dental clinics, such as the one highlighted in this newspaper excerpt, from The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, Florida), February 5, 1941. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: The New Deal's Farm Security Administration (FSA) had dental clinics for farm families in need of assistance, such as this mobile clinic in Caldwell, Idaho, 1941. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: A young patient is welcomed aboard the FSA's mobile dental clinic (see previous photo). Photo by Russell Lee, FSA, courtesy of the Library of Congress.


Above: The New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) facilitated better dental care by funding new hospitals that had dental care sections, and also by funding educational facilities, such as this dental college building. Image from: C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown, Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939.

A New Deal For Our Teeth

Cumulative statistics for New Deal dental projects--examinations and procedures--are difficult to come by, and so perhaps the best we can say is that "millions" of lower-income Americans received dental examinations and procedures thanks to New Deal programs, 1933-1943.

Here are some statistics and information to consider when thinking about total New Deal dental work:

1. The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) reported 782,707 dental examinations, in 13 states, between 1934 and 1935.

2. A 1939 WPA summary reported over 4.2 million people receiving "medical and dental" examinations, and 3.5 million treatments, at clinics operated or assisted by WPA (unfortunately, the statistic does not separate dental from other medical exams and treatments).

3. A July 9, 1940 WPA press release noted 1,000,000 annual "dental examinations and treatments" in school health programs assisted by WPA; and the Final Report on the WPA states, "In thousands of schools the children were given dental examinations..."

4. Newspaper archives are replete with articles describing the New Deal's voluminous dental projects. For example, the article, "Survey Shows WPA Activities in Neligh and Antelope County" (Neligh News, Neligh, Nebraska, April 11, 1940), reported 35,000 dental examinations and treatments in the first two weeks of January 1940.

5. Young Americans enrolled in the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) received dental care. For example, in the article "CCC Dental Work Is 'Big Business': 'See Your Dentist Twice a Year' Is Made Possible by Army Mobile Units" (The Columbus Daily Telegram, Columbus, Nebraska, February 13, 1939), we learn that "In one year, 168 mobile units cared for over 460,000 patients, making over 300,000 temporary and permanent fillings, 170,000 extractions, and 170,000 other dental procedures" (emphasis added).

Clearly, millions received dental care via the New Deal, and perhaps even tens of millions. 

"There are literally thousands of [CCC] enrollees who never had any dental attention in their lives. The number of teeth damaged through neglect to such an extent that restoration was impossible was almost beyond belief. There can be no doubt that such conditions of the teeth excited a marked deleterious effect on health. It is safe to say that over 90 percent of the volume of dental attention never would have been given had these young men not enrolled in the CCC. Work of this nature contributes not only to the betterment of health immediately but in all probability contributes greatly to the future welfare of the patients."

--Dr. Charles R. Reynolds, Surgeon General, U.S. Army, as reported in The Columbus Daily Telegram (Columbus, Nebraska), February 13, 1939, p. 5.

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