Members of the National Institutes of Health and HHS have pushed for more research and policy changes to address oral health inequities in a Feb. 26 article in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The piece was written by Rena D'Souza, DDS, PhD, director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; Francis Collins, MD, PhD, acting science adviser to the president and former director of the National Institutes of Health; and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD.
The leaders used findings and recommendations from the NIH's 2021 report, "Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges," to reiterate that although Americans' oral health has improved over the past two decades, oral healthcare disparities have persisted and pose a threat to global public health. Decreasing these disparities will require research and policy initiatives to make oral healthcare more affordable and accessible for patients, they said.
The authors called on the integration of oral, medical and behavioral healthcare in healthcare settings and the inclusion of communities in the development and execution of oral healthcare systems. They also pointed out the need to further diversify the oral health workforce, address dental education costs and continue to build on oral health research.