IDA joins FDI response to WHO oral health strategy

The FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) and 65 other organisations, including the Irish Dental Association, have submitted a joint response to the public consultation for the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) draft Global Strategy on Oral Health.

The current strategy’s vision fully aligns with the FDI’s Vision 2030: Delivering Optimal Oral Health for All document, and also refers to the three elements of universal health coverage (UHC) — quality, equitable access, and financial protection — in the context of oral health promotion and oral healthcare. While commending this initial draft, the FDI and co-signatories urge the WHO to develop a global strategy that is robust, time bound, and implementation oriented, encompassing more ambitiously all the different areas that require reform in national health systems for oral health to become an integral element of UHC and noncommunicable disease (NCD) strategies.

The Global Strategy would benefit from a more comprehensive description of all the implications that the associations between oral health, NCDs and general health have for health systems. The importance of optimising the oral health workforce to achieve the vision and goal of this Global Strategy calls for a specific strategic objective on oral health workforce. Sustainability should also be included as a guiding principle.

The FDI stands ready to support the WHO and member states with the development and implementation of the Global Strategy.