The FDI World Dental Federation drafted Vision 2030: Delivering Optimal Oral Health for All to provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary roadmap on how to impact health policies and tackle challenges to improve oral health and reduce oral health inequalities over the next decade.
According to the organization, oral conditions such as tooth decay, gum disease, tooth loss, and oral cancer are the most noncommunicable diseases worldwide, impacting 3.5 billion people with severe and significant health, societal, and economic impacts.
Oral health professionals, then, must be actively included in all efforts to improve health for all so population-level prevention efforts are effective and those in need receive quality care, FDI said.
Vision 2030 recommends strategies to address the oral disease burden that communities can adapt to their own needs and circumstances, enabling them to implement relevant solutions. It also considers how broad societal shifts such as aging populations will require the oral health workforce to adapt and remain equipped to deliver consistent care.
“Vision 2030 outlines the ways in which we can integrate our profession within global development agendas, including the UN Sustainable Development goals and the implementation of universal health coverage that determine important health priorities,” said David Williams, FDI Vision 2030 Working Group co-chair.
“How can we, as members of the oral health community, anticipate transformational changes and trends in the global healthcare environment? How do we seize opportunities to become productive members of healthcare teams delivering person-centered care? These are some of the broad questions we strive to answer through Vision 2030,” said Michael Glick, FDI Vision 2030 Working Group co-chair.
Achieving optimal oral health for all requires strong advocates who are ready to tackle this major public health challenge, FDI said. Through the steps laid out in Vision 2030, the oral health profession will be well equipped to argue for the better integration of oral health within overall health united behind a set of shared aims, FDI said.
The authors of Vision 2030, including diverse expert professionals from throughout the healthcare community, have emphasized the need to engage with the public as well as a range of other stakeholders, FDI said.
Vision 2030 also calls for patients themselves to be well informed advocates for their own oral health and be able to take an active role in their treatment decisions, FDI said. From the patient to the profession, FDI said, Vision 2030 drives the message home that there is no health without oral health.
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