ADA News

Dr. Irvin Silverstein, La Mesa, Calif., received the 2009 Trudi Birger Award for volunteerism from the Alpha Omega international dental fraternity.

The award is named in honor of Trudi Birger, a Holocaust survivor and founder of the Dental Volunteers for Israel free clinic in Jerusalem, which treats children of all faiths and nationalities, ages 5-18. (See 'We are trying to bring the world together'.) Ms. Birger was an honorary member of Alpha Omega.

Dr. Silverstein received the award in recognition of his exemplary volunteer efforts.

Since 2003, he has served as the dental advisor/director for the University of California San Diego Student-Run Free Dental Clinic Project, which operates three clinics that provide care for the underserved in San Diego county. He also advises the UCSD Predental Society, and has mentored more than 275 undergraduate students who are now dental students or dental school graduates. He coordinates opportunities for predental students to participate in humanitarian programs outside the San Diego clinics as well.

For the past five years, Dr. Silverstein has assisted the U.S. Navy's humanitarian efforts by coordinating predental students, dentists and others in mission trips to Central America, India and Southeast Asia aboard Navy ships like the USNS Mercy and Comfort hospital ships.