New definitions of oral health provide an opportunity to change mindsets and promote innovation to tackle high levels of unmet needs, but this will only be realised with a radical change in practice, argue Julian Fisher and colleagues
More than 3.5 billion people globally suffer from the main oral diseases. These conditions combined have an estimated global prevalence of 45%—higher than any other non-communicable disease.1 A major barrier to improving this situation is our approach to oral health.
The prevailing mindset is that oral health is synonymous with dentistry and that poor oral health has little impact on personal and societal health and wellbeing. We need to shift away from the idea that the prevention and control of certain oral diseases equates to overall oral health and instead move to a broader and more inclusive understanding. Expanded …