The focal point of this image is a serpent wrapped around a cautery. The serpent, although poison-bearing and sly, subsumes Grecian and Biblical representations of health.
The Greeks held that Asclepius slithered into a serpent to heal the people suffering from the Roman plague that covered the land. The image you see above represents the Rod of Asclepius.
Serpent representations of health are consistent in the Old Testament as well. The Bible reads: “Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 21:9)
So, you see, the emblem bears a much deeper meaning than a simple glance would reveal. Since 1965, this emblem has represented dentistry when the American Dental Association (ADA) deemed this the official emblem. Upon further inspection, the emblem is long-rooted in history and symbolism to represent our profession.