Raising awareness of oral health as an essential factor in general health

Despite the fact that oral health is an essential factor in general health and quality of life through an individual's life course, oral health is mostly neglected in integral approaches for the promotion of general health.

Compounding this, oral health care is often considered in isolation by national health authorities. It is vital to emphasize systematic approaches to oral health and general health in an ageing society.

Holistic or comprehensive health approaches and guidelines on oral health practice for ageing societies based on the life course perspective as well as quality of life will help countries and communities better respond to the current and future burden of oral disease through public policy.

Working together with WHO Headquarters and WHO Regional Offices, WKC's Ageing and Health Programme is aiming to raise awareness of oral health as an essential factor in general health by bridging the gap between oral health and medical professionals, and between research and policy. It hopes thereby to stimulate development of proper community practices and to facilitate comprehensive research by providing scientific information on population oral health.

To this end, WKC is organizing a meeting on oral health in ageing societies from 1 to 3 June 2005 in Kobe , Japan . The meeting aims to: clarify the relationship between oral health and general health; develop and implement integrated oral health care models (including health promotion) by using successful models of integrated oral health programmes in primary health care surveillance systems development; and develop programme evaluation tools for assessing oral health care among older persons, including establishment of comprehensive oral health databases on risks and outcomes related to older people. Multidisciplinary experts from a variety of areas, such as dentistry, medicine, ageing, public health research and policymaking will participate the meeting.