The Larimer County Dental Society (LCDS) represents dentists in north central Colorado.
Purpose of LCDS
The Larimer County Dental Society strives to:
- promote and maintain high ethical and moral characteristics essential to professionalism.
- promote continuing education in order to provide the best treatment and care for our patients.
- promote fair price in the profession and camaraderie among the members.
- promote legislation which will best serve the public and the profession and support political candidates who favor our goals.
- promote the profession to highly qualified potential students and urge them to enter the profession.
History of LCDS
Early dentists came to Larimer County for various reasons: prospecting, mining, get-rich-quick schemes, climate and health, for legitimate practice and some were born here.
Thirteen dentists formed the Fort Collins Dental Association Aug. 11, 1908, the first association to be organized in the state outside Denver. They soon realized there were other eligible dentists in the country who could benefit by and contribute to the society. On Nov. 2, 1909, the LCDS was formed at a dinner at the Northern Hotel where Dr. Howard J. Livingston was elected president.
The purpose of the organization was to cooperate with the Denver Society and the State Board of Dental Examiners to exclude the illegal practitioners from the state, to uphold the high standards of the profession, etc. They offered free dental examinations to grade school children.
The minutes of this association were missing until January 1926 when the minutes of the Fort Collins Dental Association (FCDA) were interspersed with the minutes of the LCDS. Apparently both continued to meet together and also separately.
On Dec. 7, 1926, the FCDA applied to the Colorado Dental Association for membership and was accepted. On Jan. 24, 1927, they moved to adopt the constitution and bylaws of the CDA and ADA.
The first female dentist in the county (1902-1910) was not a member of the society. Sixty six years later, the first woman was accepted for membership.
Continuing education has been an important part of the society from its beginning. Early members demonstrated some idea or technique they had used or developed in this pioneering stage of the profession. In the 1920s and the 1930s, clinicians came mostly from Denver. Current programs are varied with clinicians, political action programs, and scientific and material updates.
The American Association of Orthodontists was organized July 16-19, 1929, at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, but Larimer County did not have an orthodontist until 1956. (Submitted by Venita Schneider)
CDA Trustee
Dr. Allison Lesko
Fort Collins
Officers
Dr. Nicole Ferrara, President
Loveland
Dr. Jon Anderson, Past President
Fort Collins
Dr. Emily Riesgraf, Vice President
Fort Collins
Dr. Welton Sands, Treasurer
Fort Collins
Dr. Michael Daetwyler, Secretary
