Dr. Maurice Edwards, NYSDA President  

Dr. Maurice Edwards graduated from the University of Rochester, where he played football, with a B.A. in Biology.  Upon graduation while applying and interviewing for Dental School, Maurice became certified as an Emergency Medical Technician.  Dr. Edwards was accepted and then attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine where he earned his Doctorate of Medical Dentistry.  Immediately upon completion Dr. Edwards matched and completed a 4 year Residency Program in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at New York University/Bellevue Hospital.   

After completing his residency program, Dr. Edwards began building his solo practice and became more involved in organized dentistry at the local level in New York County.  He then became more involved in the ADA, NYSDA, AAOMS, NYSSOMS and the New York Society of Forensic Dentistry.  The day after Sept. 11th, 2001, Maurice spent the next 10 days with thousands of volunteers at Ground Zero searching for remains of the victims and then the following 8 months with the Dental ID Unit, at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, helping to identify about 60% of all the remains identified.  Dr. Edwards was awarded The New Dentist Leadership Award by NYSDA for his efforts during that trying time for New York City and the Country.  

In 2002 Dr. Edwards became a Diplomat of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.  About this time, his involvement increased to several committees for New York County Dental Society.  Dr. Edwards then served as a Director at Large for New York County, which helped elevate him to treasurer, V.P. and eventually President of New York County Dental Society in 2015.    

During and since that time Dr. Edwards has served as a member of NYSDA’s Council on Membership and Communication, where he also served as Chair for 2 years.  Dr. Edwards attended the ADA’s Institute on Diversity and Inclusion in Leadership and upon graduation served 4 years as a member of the ADA’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion.   

For more than 13 years, Dr. Edwards has served in the capacity of Delegate or Alternate Delegate to NYSDA’s and the ADA’s Houses of Delegates, he has served on several State and National Tasks Forces and as a member of the reference committee for both houses.  In 2021, Dr. Edwards was selected and became New York County’s Trustee to NYSDA’s  Board of Trustees. 

With his free time, Dr. Edwards holds faculty positions in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at NYU College of Dentistry and at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai West Medical Center’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Sections in the Department of Otolaryngology.   

Most recently Dr. Edwards became a Lynbrook firefighter along with his younger daughter and his son as well as his wife who joined the Lynbrook Fire Department Auxiliary Unit. 

For fun, when Dr. Edwards is not working out or doing community service with the brothers of any of his three fraternities, Maurice enjoys spending time with his wife, Michelle of 30 years, his children, Keanna, Brianna and Christian and the newest additions to the family, his grandsons, Kyrie and Kaleed!