Dental Students Strongly Support WHO Oral Health Resolution

At the World Health Assembly in May 2021, government representatives will consider the adoption of the WHO resolution on oral health. Despite clear evidence on the high burden, oral diseases have been neglected for too long, leading to suffering, reduced quality of life and severe impacts on schooling and work for millions of people. 

The draft 2021 WHO resolution on oral health being considered by the World Health Assembly next week offers a clear and holistic path towards good oral health for all, and the first steps towards integrating oral health services and care within existing programmes and health system structures. As representatives of major international youth-led healthcare organizations, we call on national governments to adopt the resolution.  

Active, meaningful participation of youth will be fundamental to create lasting and sustainable impact on oral health policy. Youth representatives should be included in policy making processes, from the global to the local level, and should be key partners in priority setting initiatives. Development of guidance and educational materials on oral health must also be done in collaboration with youth representatives to ensure it meets the needs of the next generation; new challenges require new ideas and perspectives.  

As such we outline here the youth agenda for oral health:  

● Universal Health Coverage – The burden of oral diseases falls disproportionately on poor and vulnerable communities. Public health and community-based interventions must be prioritised, while reforms should be guided by health equity, with access to high quality, culturally acceptable and affordable oral health services for poor and vulnerable communities a key indicator of success.  

● Climate Change and Planetary Health - Young people across the world continue to emphasise the need to act on climate change and radically reduce the use of non-renewable resources as the basis for all policy, including oral health policy. Oral health services and care must therefore consider planetary health and ensure a reduction in the impact on the environment. Firstly, by catalysing a system-level shift to prevention over cure, but also by significantly reducing the use of plastics, water and energy used by both patients and practitioners.  

● Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence - With an ever increasing digital coverage, the oral health community should ensure that digital health tools are effectively utilised. From promoting oral health in isolated communities, collecting data on oral diseases, to facilitating remote treatment from community healthcare workers, innovative applications of digital health can drive oral health improvement. Youth will also be key to delivering oral health benefits of next generation technologies such as artificial intelligence.  

● Education and People - Education will be essential to deliver these changes above and in the resolution. By ensuring that newly qualified health professionals have the knowledge, skills and cultural awareness to not only deliver high quality care for their patients, but to advocate for their communities, these necessary changes will be embedded throughout the healthcare system. Interprofessional education can help to catalyse such intersectoral action to positively impact oral health, with goals for oral health improvement shared across the healthcare sector. The report on oral health by the WHO Director-General highlights the lack of progress made in the last 25 years. Progress must be hastened, and youth organisations stand ready to actively support the implementation of the WHO Resolution as equal partners; we will continue to advocate for progressive oral health policy in order to build forward better. We call on national governments to not only adopt the resolution but to urgently implement it both systematically and strategically.  

Signatories 

European Dental Students’ Association - EDSA 

International Association of Dental Students - IADS 

African Dental Students Association - AfroDSA 

Asia Pacific Dental Students' Association - APDSA  

European Medical Students’ Association - EMSA  

International Working Group for Health System Strengthening - IWG