Lido Beach dentist, New York National Guard Major Joel Bachman, honored by Army Dental Corps

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Major Joel Bachman

• Major Joel Bachman works with a New York Army National Guard Soldier during a medical readiness check on June 11, 2016 at Camp Smith Training Site.

LATHAM, NY (06/15/2016)(readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Major Joel Bachman, a Lido Beach resident, has been named the best military dentist in the half million strong Reserve Component of the Army.

Bachman, who has a civilian practice in Oceanside, N.Y., is the recipient of the Chief of the Army Dental Corps Award of Excellence for 2016 for Reserve dental officers.

The Reserve components of the Army consists of the 350,000-strong Army National Guard and the 195,000 members of the Army Reserve.

The award 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.

Lt. Col. Arthur Bilenker, the head of the New York Army National Guard's dental program, said 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.

As a National Guard dentist, Bachman oversees the civilian contract dentists and dental technicians who conduct dental checkups of Soldiers, and also oversees the voucher program through which the Army pays civilian dentists to repair National Guard Soldiers teeth, Bilenker said.

"Bachman has really embraced this and spends a tremendous amount of time, on his personal time, giving us the statistics that we need so we can make intelligent recommendations to the units about their readiness and what needs to be done," Bilenker said.

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.

Ensuring 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, he explained.

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.

His first exposure to the National Guard started in 2007 when he worked as a civillian 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, New York's uniformed, volunteer state emergency response force. Medical personnel who join the New York Guard often augment military doctors and dentists during the medical health checks for National Guard Soldiers.

He got a great deal of satisfaction in working as a contractor to ensure that Soldiers dental health was good, Bachman said.

'"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."

"He came in, he saw a need, he wants to be part of our team, "he added.

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," Bachman said. "But my bolt is not going to be the one that gets loose. I try to keep a tight grip on my lane."