The World Health Organization has adopted a global strategy to create an oral health action plan.
Five things to know:
1. The strategy will inform the development of a global action plan, including a framework for tracking progress with goals to be achieved by 2030, WHO said in a May 28 news release.
2. WHO said oral diseases are among the most common noncommunicable diseases worldwide, with more than 3.5 billion cases of oral diseases and other oral conditions in 2019.
3. The strategy establishes a vision for universal health coverage for oral health to help people achieve optimal oral health by tackling social and commercial determinants and risk factors for oral conditions.
4. The strategy contains actions for member states, international partners, civil society and the private sector to achieve four goals, which include developing national responses to promote oral health, reducing oral diseases and inequalities and strengthening efforts to address oral diseases and conditions as part of universal healthcare.
5. The WHO also established a set of guiding principles to be used when working toward each goal: taking a public health approach, integrating oral healthcare with primary healthcare and adopting innovative workforce models to respond to population needs.