257th Medical Company (Dental Services)
The 257th Medical Company (Dental Services) is one of three CONUS based Medical Companies (DS) and is the only Airborne and Air Assault capable unit of the four. The 257th is assigned to the 55th Medical Group, which is subordinate to the 44th Medical Brigade. The 44th Medical Brigade supports the 18th Airborne Corps and the four Combat Divisions in the Corps.
The mission of the 257th Medical Company is to provide dental care and services on an area basis to the soldier of XVIII Airborne Corps; reinforce or reconstitute the dental assets of other medical units; augment Medical Facilities Combat Casualty Care capability within its area of responsibility.
The 257th provides all three categories of dental care that are available in the Theater of Operations: emergency, sustaining, and maintaining dental care.
The 257th Medical Company has the organic assets to provide all levels of dental care, from emergency through routine and elective. The company is capable of self transport, power generation, maintenance and supply.
The 257th Medical Company (DS), by virtue of being a purely dental organization, gives the 55th Medical Group Commander maximum flexibility in deployment options and task organization. The 257th has the capability of deploying single or multiple dental teams anywhere in the T.O.
The 257th provides area dental support to all units within a designated geographic area of responsibility. It may also be tasked to provide direct support to hospital units (CSH or GH) and to reinforce or reconstitute unit-level or area support dental assets (82d Airborne, 101 st Airborne (AA), 10th Mountain, and 3d Mech Inf Divisions and 261 st Area Support Medical Battalion).
The basis of allocation, by doctrine, is one Dental Company per 20,000 deployed troops (when providing all three categories of care), or one per 30,000 troops (when providing only emergency and sustaining care). It is very important to understand that this basis of allocation is not affected by the presence of other "unit-level" or "area" dental assets (i.e. division dental assets, Area Support Medical Company, etc.). This basis of allocation assumes that these dental assets are already present in the T.O. The Medical Company (Dental Service) has 16 officers and 43 enlisted members organized into four platoons. The Dental Company is comprised of a Headquarters and Support Platoon, a Dentistry/Prosthetics Platoon (First Platoon), a General Dentistry Section (Second Platoon), and a Forward Dental Treatment Section (Third Platoon).
The Dental Company has 15 dental modules and 6 dental hygiene modules, which can be task organized as a single 21-chair dental clinic, or be divided up into as many as 10 separate dental clinics, depending on the mission and the location of the patient population.
Elements of the 257th Medical Company (DS) normally deploy and co-locate with a medical facility (ASMB, CSH or GH) whenever possible. A Dental Company is limited in its ability to provide sufficient security, logistic support, and maintenance support to all of its dental teams when they are widely dispersed across the T.O. It is logical and reasonable to co-locate the various dental sections with host medical units. On one hand, the dental units receive vital logistic support, while on the other hand; combat units send their troops through the medical evacuation system to receive dental care. Historically, 10%-25% of all outpatients reporting to field hospitals are dental patients. Therefore, co-locating dental units with hospitals provides a truly symbiotic relationship between the dental and medical units.
The 257th Medical Company was originally constituted on 19 February 1944 in the Army of the United States as the 257th Medical Section. It activated on 25 February 1944 at Camp Grant, IL.
The unit reorganized and was redesignated on 10 April 1945 as the 257th Medical Detachment. It inactivated on 12 November 1945 in France.
The unit was redesignated on 16 February 1951 as the 257th Medical Gas Detachment and allotted to the Regular Army. It activated on 15 September 1951 in Germany. It inactivated on 20 March 1953 in Germany.
Redesignated on 29 June 1964 as the 257th Medical Detachment, it activated on 10 August 1964 at Camp Polk, LA. The unit inactivated on 20 February 1970 in Vietnam.
The unit reactivated 15 March 1971 at Fort Jackson, SC. It relocated on 26 June 1984 to Fort Bragg, NC. It was reorganized and redesignated on 16 November 1993 as the 257th Medical Company (Dental Service).
