[Formation of Soviet dentistry: 1918-1921]

The main task of the Dentistry subsection of the People's Commissariat for Health, established in August 1918, was the creation of qualified, free, scheduled dental care in the country, accessible to the general population. Dentistry reform had to be carried out under the conditions of post-revolutionary devastation, famine and the Civil War, in the absence of sufficient funding, appropriate material base, with a significant shortage of dentists and their negative attitude towards the changes taking place. The problem of lack of equipment, materials and medicines was solved by nationalization of private dental offices, and the dentists who were left without equipment were forced to perform labor, and not all of them were able to survive those difficult years. Nevertheless, in the RSFSR a network of state outpatient dental clinics was created, which after the country's transition to the New Economic Policy began to rapidly erode - a sustainable system of free public dentistry was to be created at another time and under different economic conditions.