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Long-time Manteca childrens dentist comes out of retirement
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Dr. Elverne M. “Al” Tonn has come out of retirement and is practicing his pediatric dentistry specialty on Thursdays at the Manteca dental office of Dr. Ricardo Cuevas at 132 Sycamore Avenue. Dr. Tonn welcomes children as young as one year and through the teen years. - photo by Photo Contributed
A well-known Manteca children’s dentist has come out of retirement, and will be accepting patients from 12 months to older teens.  He just couldn’t endure being completely away from his patients.

Dr. Elverne “Al” Tonn served as a practicing partner with Valley Dental Group on West Yosemite Avenue for some 20 years.   Total retirement wasn’t for him, and he is going to be seeing patients in the Manteca dental office of Dr. Ricardo Cuevas on Sycamore Avenue just south of Center Street.

Al  is still reserving six days a week for his wife Ann and their five grandchildren.  He has maintained a home office to review extensive dental claims referred to him by an independent medical review network.

His “early retirement” has also focused on his love for photography, travel, forensic odontology, archeology, and anthropology.  Al has also served with the police departments as a volunteer in the Seniors in Police Services (SHARPS).

Dr. Tonn holds a degree as Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of California, School of Dentistry.  He served in the U.S. Army at the rank of Captain stationed at the presidio of San Francisco’s Headquarters Clinic.

He took his Pediatric Dental training in the Management and Treatment of the Developmentally Disabled at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York.  Dr. Tonn was later invited to join the Stanford University Cleft Palate Team to assist in treating children with cleft lip, cleft palate and other birth anomalies.

The Manteca dentist also served in the original formation of the dental department at the 500 bed El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and later was elected chief of the department for two terms.

Dr. Tonn was later awarded a Fellowship in the American Academy of Dentistry for the Handicapped.  He has held teaching positions and was appointed associate professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the School of Dentistry, University of the Pacific in San Francisco, and the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center for over 20 years.

In that time period he participated in dental materials research in silver amalgam, enamel sealants and composite filling materials and presented papers at meetings of the International Association of Dental Research, the National Institutes of Health, the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Forensic  Sciences.

During the last 50 years, Dr. Tonn has practiced dentistry for children, young adults and the disabled in various private and group practices.

He has also worked part-time with the Delta Dental of California, one of the nation’s largest dental insurance providers, as a certified dental benefits consultant in the quality review department.

Dr. Tonn has also been recognized for his forensic work at the New York World Trade Center disaster, and at hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans.  He is a member of the Kenyon International Worldwide Emergency Disaster Management Company as well as the State of California Dental Identification Team.

His interest in forensics was sparked by his initial forensic dental training at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2000.

Late he attended a concentrated week long forensic dentistry symposium at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and the Investigation for Identification Educational Conference in Pensacola, Florida.

Dr. Tonn is currently a member of the National Disaster Medical Services/DMORT, Region 9, and West Coast Team.