Dentists urged to petition to make oral health a global priority
Representatives from a global dental organisation have urged dentists across the world to petition to make oral health a priority.
The FDI World Dental Federation is encouraging dentists to write to governments and chief dental officers to campaign to make oral health the priority at the United Nations Summit on non-communicable diseases. The theme of this year’s World Oral Health Day is non-communicable diseases and the summit, which is due to take place a week later, provides an excellent opportunity to raise the media profile of oral health.
Jean-Luc Eisele, executive director of the World Dental Federation, recently told a United Nations civil society hearing that the list of non-communicable diseases should include oral diseases- the list currently includes cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and respiratory diseases. All the conditions listed have similar risk factors to oral health disease, including tobacco use, drinking alcohol and an unhealthy diet. Mr Eisele believes that oral health practitioners can play an extremely important role in the detection and treatment of non-communicable diseases.
The FDI is currently organising a press event at the annual congress in Mexico to celebrate and raise awareness of World Oral Health Day. The FDI is also encouraging dentists to get in touch with chief dental officers and government ministers in the run up to the United Nations Summit, which will take place in New York on the 19th September.
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