Executive summary

Oral disease continues to be a significant public health challenge, globally. Oral diseases are among the most common noncommunicable diseases worldwide affecting some 3.5 billion people. They can cause pain, discomfort, disfigurement, tooth loss and embarrassment, resulting in missed school or workdays and lead to social withdrawal and isolation. Oral health conditions, therefore, have a significant detrimental effect on people’s overall health and well-being – in the most severe cases leading to sepsis or even death – and their economic cost as well as impact on the health care system is considerable.

Major barriers to accessing and utilizing oral health care exist at the macro (system), meso (organizantional) and micro (clinical) level. These include maldistribution and inaccessibility to the oral health workforce, oral health being siloed from the wider health care team, widening inequalities due to advancing technologies in high-income countries, the cost associated with oral health care, and the lack of governmental commitment to tackling the social and commercial determinants of health that contribute to oral diseases.

As countries work towards the implementation of universal health coverage (UHC), it is imperative that oral health is not left behind. Primary health care (PHC) is usually the first point of contact with health care services and is the setting in which oral and general care is provided. Oral health teams, collaborating with primary care teams, have a great opportunity to integrate oral health through a common risk factor approach.

This white paper has been written to support National Dental Associations (NDAs) and policymakers understand the challenges in accessing oral health care and provides implementable solutions. The solutions to accessing oral health are neither prescriptive nor exhaustive, and advocates are urged to adapt it for use based on the needs, circumstances and oral health priorities within their countries and regions. This white paper also highlights future works that needs to be undertaken at a country-level to improve access to oral health care.

Suggested citation

FDI World Dental Federation. Access to oral health through primary health care [White paper]. Geneva: FDI; 2023.