Twenty Asian Countries Push to Add Essential Dental Care to National Health Coverage
Oral health leaders from 20 Asian countries met in Malaysia at the midpoint of a WHO "100-Day Sprint" to build essential dental care into their universal health coverage plans.
Twenty Asian countries and areas have pledged to strengthen essential dental care as part of a “100-Day Sprint” to build it into national universal health coverage, the World Health Organization said. Their oral health leaders met in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, from September 27 to 29, the midpoint of the sprint.
Oral diseases are the most common noncommunicable diseases
Many oral diseases are preventable and treatable through basic services at the primary health-care level, WHO officials said. The participants include Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, among others, across WHO’s Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions.
“There is no health without oral health.” — Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific
Countries mapped what stands in the way
Using a WHO planning platform, each country analyzed bottlenecks in four areas: service delivery, workforce, access to medicines and health products, and financing. They then refined proposed changes to their national packages of essential oral health services.
Malaysia’s health minister, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, stressed prevention in schools and communities. During the meeting, the WHO team visited a school in Sabah running a fluoride mouth-rinsing program. The sprint’s outcome will depend on how many countries add the services to their coverage plans in practice.
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