The ADA announced that Richard V. Tucker, DDS, and Jeanne Sinkford, DDS, PhD, will receive the ADA Distinguished Service Award.
This year for the first time, the award will go to two people, the ADA noted.
Dr. Tucker perfected the use of gold in restorative dentistry, known as the Tucker Technique, according to an ADA News story. From 1948 to his retirement in 2013, Dr. Tucker had a small-town private practice, where he studied and innovated gold procedures. There are now more than 50 active Tucker Clinical Operating Study Clubs around the world. He is the past president of the Washington State Dental Association, Academy of Operative Dentistry, and the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators.
"Willie Mays was once described as belonging in a higher league, being too good for the majors," Curtis F. Smith, DDS, the associate dental director of Delta Dental Washington and member of a Tucker study club, is quoted in the story. "That pretty well describes Dick Tucker's relationship to the everyday world of restorative dentistry. He seems to belong to a higher league. His influence is nationwide and international. He has truly become a dental profession icon."
Dr. Sinkford was appointed the dean of the Howard University College of Dentistry in 1975, becoming the first female dean of a dental school, according to an ADA News story. She has served on numerous national councils and organizations, including the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. She was also the associate director and director of the Center of Equity and Diversity of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), and she is now the senior scholar in residence at the ADEA.
They will receive the award on November 6 at the ADA House of Delegates in Washington, DC, at the association's annual meeting.
