Long Beach Good News of the Week: Local Dentist Honored by Army Dental Corps

Want some relief from all the local bad news? Here's one piece of good news coming out of the Long Beach area to help start off your week:

Lido Beach resident Joel Bachman, an Army National Guard Major Joel Bachman, was recently named the best military dentist by the Army Dental Corps.

Bachman, who has a practice in Oceanside, received the Chief of the Army Dental Corps Award of Excellence for 2016 for Reserve dental officers which recognizes "significant and exemplary contributions to the Dental Corps of the United States Army Reserves or Army National Guard, and the greater Army community, while best exemplifying the Army values, emphasizing leadership and service," according to Major General Thomas Tempel Jr., the Chief of the Dental Corps.

According to Lt. Col. Arthur Bilenker, head of the New York Army National Guard's dental program, Bachman was nominated for the award because of the "tremendous positive impact" he has had on the dental readiness of the New York National Guard's 10,300 Soldiers since he joined in 2010.

He oversees the civilian contract dentists and dental technicians who do dental checkups on soldiers as well as the voucher program which the Army uses to pay the dentists to fix teeth for the National Guard soldiers.

Dental health is a major issue for the military, service members who deploy and then cannot perform their duties because of dental health issues are as out of the fight as a soldier wounded in battle, Bilenker said.

According to Bilenker, the dental health of reserve component soldiers, who are not based where Army dentists are available and who often do not have dental health coverage through their civilian jobs, has been a major issue of the National Guard and Army Reserve.

Bachman, who began practicing dentistry in 1983, joined the New York Army National Guard in 2010 at 54, an age when most other Soldiers are normally completing their career.

He started working for the National Guard in 2007 as a civilian contract dentist for the Army, providing dental care for soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, while working at his regular practice.

In 2008, he joined the New York Guard working to make sure the dental health of the soldiers were good.

'"He made a commitment to the Guard, to the state, and to his country knowing full well that he could deploy," Bilenker said. "At this point in his life he felt he could make a positive commitment."

Bachman said that while he is honored to be selected as the top dental officer in the Army's reserve components, he is just part of a team of New York Army National Guard dentists who work well together.

"My piece is one little bolt on the bottom of the Army's big machine," he said. "But my bolt is not going to be the one that gets loose. I try to keep a tight grip on my lane."

Congratulations to Joel Bachman!