Burton L. Edelstein,
Tooth Decay: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Burton L. Edelstein, DDS, MPH, is a board-certified pediatric dentist and professor in the School of Dental and Oral Surgery and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City. At the dental school, he is chairman of the Section on Social and Behavioral Sciences. He is the founding director of the Children's Dental Health Project, a nonprofit policy organization in Washington, DC, that advances children's oral health and access to dental care. Dr. Edelstein practiced pediatric dentistry in Connecticut and taught at Harvard for 21 years before committing to full-time health policy practice. He has served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate, worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on its oral health initiatives, chaired the U.S. Surgeon General's Workshop on Children and Oral Health, and authored the child section of the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health in America. Dr. Edelstein is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo School of Dentistry, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Boston Children's Hospital pediatric dentistry residency program.