Oral diseases are a global public health challenge with serious impacts on health, health systems, the economy, and quality of life. It is estimated that 3.5 billion people around the world suffer from oral diseases, and that the majority of the world’s population lack sustained and affordable access to oral health care. The high prevalence of oral diseases in some groups reflects widespread socio-economic inequalities. Poor oral health is particularly prevalent in the most socially excluded and marginalized groups in society. In addition, in many countries (particularly low- and middle-income countries) there are inadequate resources for prevention and treatment; countries may also lack supportive policies to protect populations from risks to health and oral health, and to enable them to access oral health care.
Barriers to accessing care may exist at the personal, community, and national levels, all of which must be addressed if positive changes are to be seen. In the past, limited efforts have been made at a global and local level to improve access to essential oral care, including the introduction of the WHO-supported Basic Package of Oral Care (2003). Apart from not being well documented, these efforts have often lacked full health system support, rarely grew beyond a pilot stage, and were not widely implemented. This meant they had limited impact. In addition, the persisting failure to integrate oral health and general health in a primary health context in many health systems remains a challenge, even though the important risk factors for oral diseases and other NCDs are the same. The high burden of oral diseases in the world is a major unaddressed health need and public health problem. New ideas and approaches are urgently needed to address these challenges in view of the global commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and their target of Universal Health Coverage.
The goal of this Research Topic is to present ideas and examples from around the world of how access to care has been and could be improved, and to explore how the current concepts of Universal Health Coverage, 'Best Buys', and other recent international policy developments may lead to improved oral health and access to care for the world’s population.
This collection seeks articles on a broad range of topics related to access to care, including high-quality systematic or scoping reviews of related topics, evaluations of programs, analysis of program planning, financial planning, and implementation of coverage schemes, policy review and analytic descriptions of policy change processes.
Authors should submit articles related to the following:
• The place of oral health within Universal Health Coverage;
• The Basic Package of Oral Health and its core approaches;
• The WHO ‘Best Buys’ concept and the application to oral health;
• Reducing inequalities and improving access to oral care in remote and rural settings;
• The Systems Approach to improving health care;
• Barriers to improving access to oral health care;
• Root causes of inequalities in oral health;
• Innovative oral health workforce concepts;
• Packaged approaches to providing oral health services;
• Examples and analysis of how integration of oral health care and general health care lead to improvements in coverage and access;
• Integration of oral health with the global NCDs agenda;
• Improving recognition for oral health on the global health agenda.
Oral diseases are a global public health challenge with serious impacts on health, health systems, the economy, and quality of life. It is estimated that 3.5 billion people around the world suffer from oral diseases, and that the majority of the world’s population lack sustained and affordable access to oral health care. The high prevalence of oral diseases in some groups reflects widespread socio-economic inequalities. Poor oral health is particularly prevalent in the most socially excluded and marginalized groups in society. In addition, in many countries (particularly low- and middle-income countries) there are inadequate resources for prevention and treatment; countries may also lack supportive policies to protect populations from risks to health and oral health, and to enable them to access oral health care.
Barriers to accessing care may exist at the personal, community, and national levels, all of which must be addressed if positive changes are to be seen. In the past, limited efforts have been made at a global and local level to improve access to essential oral care, including the introduction of the WHO-supported Basic Package of Oral Care (2003). Apart from not being well documented, these efforts have often lacked full health system support, rarely grew beyond a pilot stage, and were not widely implemented. This meant they had limited impact. In addition, the persisting failure to integrate oral health and general health in a primary health context in many health systems remains a challenge, even though the important risk factors for oral diseases and other NCDs are the same. The high burden of oral diseases in the world is a major unaddressed health need and public health problem. New ideas and approaches are urgently needed to address these challenges in view of the global commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and their target of Universal Health Coverage.
The goal of this Research Topic is to present ideas and examples from around the world of how access to care has been and could be improved, and to explore how the current concepts of Universal Health Coverage, 'Best Buys', and other recent international policy developments may lead to improved oral health and access to care for the world’s population.
This collection seeks articles on a broad range of topics related to access to care, including high-quality systematic or scoping reviews of related topics, evaluations of programs, analysis of program planning, financial planning, and implementation of coverage schemes, policy review and analytic descriptions of policy change processes.
Authors should submit articles related to the following:
• The place of oral health within Universal Health Coverage;
• The Basic Package of Oral Health and its core approaches;
• The WHO ‘Best Buys’ concept and the application to oral health;
• Reducing inequalities and improving access to oral care in remote and rural settings;
• The Systems Approach to improving health care;
• Barriers to improving access to oral health care;
• Root causes of inequalities in oral health;
• Innovative oral health workforce concepts;
• Packaged approaches to providing oral health services;
• Examples and analysis of how integration of oral health care and general health care lead to improvements in coverage and access;
• Integration of oral health with the global NCDs agenda;
• Improving recognition for oral health on the global health agenda.