Commissioned by the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) and supported by Haleon, The Economist Impact launched its White Paper ‘Time to put your money where your mouth is: Addressing inequalities in oral health’ on 13 February 2024 in Brussels. The White Paper led by Gerald Dunleavy and Rob Cook included insights and contribution from the ACFF’s Global Chair, Professor Nigel Pitts among many other experts in oral health.
Key findings reported in the White Paper were:
- Mainstream framing of oral diseases as Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is lacking.
- Barriers exist to implementing upstream and downstream preventive measures.
- Clinical care for dental caries remains largely focused on a “repair approach”.
- The most deprived bear the highest costs of inadequate preventive efforts.
The White Paper explored ‘the way forward’ which included:
- Expand and diversify the oral health workforce.
- Incentivise preventive care.
- Engage the population by raising awareness.
- Build public-private partnership to promote population-level prevention.
- Address shared risk factors with other NCDs to improve overall health
- Improve epidemiological methods to measure early caries and periodontal disease.
- Collect data and enhance transparency.
The White Paper is available to download here.
The Infographic is available to download here.