In This Section

Vaccinations are critical to preventing the spread of communicable diseases. Dental students and dentists play a key role in explaining evidence-based medicine, including vaccines, to patients.

Ashley Wettstain, Kentucky ’22 administers the COVID-19 vaccine at the Kentucky Dental Association Advocacy Days.

ASDA's Policies

ASDA’s H-11 policy supports the ADA Policy on Vaccine Administration. The policy also encourages dental schools to incorporate vaccine administration into their curricula and to administer vaccinations in clinical settings, when appropriate. 

ASDA’s I-2 policy supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) current recommendation that dental students be vaccinated, given their risk for contracting serious, and sometimes deadly, diseases. ASDA also encourages dental schools to provide and help subsidize vaccine-preventable diseases screening and vaccine administration.

ASDA's I-3 policy supports compliance with the current CDC guidelines for vaccines, recommends that dental schools urge patients to follow CDC guidelines for vaccines, and encourages dental schools to provide patient education on vaccines as a scientifically-proven safe and effective measure of preventing communicable diseases. 

What has ASDA Done?

  • In 2025, ASDA’s H-11 policy on vaccine administration was amended to emphasize the importance of vaccines in preventing HPV.
  • In August 2021, ASDA signed onto a coalition letter and launched a campaign supporting the PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021.
  • In December 2020, ASDA joined in sending a letter to the Director of the CDC requesting clarification that dental personnel were included in the designated health care personnel that had priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

From Dental Students