NCDA Full Member

About Center for Integrative Global Oral Health

The Center for Integrative Global Oral Health (CIGOH) was formed in 2020 to find innovative solutions to transform the way educators, practitioners, and policy makers address the challenges of achieving equitable oral health.

Through a lens of equity, diversity and inclusion we:

• Develop leaders and researchers in oral and population health, health policy, and advocacy;
• Create and disseminate transdisciplinary globally generated evidence-informed guidelines and policies;
• Foster and Coordinate a community of implementation research;
• Advocate to increase affordability, availability, and accessibility for oral health globally, nationally and regionally.

Center for Integrative Global Oral Health's work on NCDs

Poor oral health complicates many of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases around the world, from diabetes to heart disease, to autoimmune and neurological diseases, to conditions related to aging, disability, or economic deprivation. Our Center will work collaboratively in support of the NCDA agenda, producing evidence informed oral health guidelines and to refine existing guidance to meet the demands of local-specific needs.

Through our popular, free lecture series, we will encourage others in the oral health world to share data and best practices to expand access to care and to address the needs of vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities.

Through our planned master and PHD in oral population health, we will fill a gap in public health training that specifically advances awareness of the intersection of global and general health, with a focus on non-communicable diseases. We will stimulate a dialogue about feasible, cost effective solutions to using improved oral health to achieve better health for all.

We believe that dentists need to do more to secure a seat at the table where policy is planned and resources are allocated. The global community has a long way to go before optimal oral health is achieved for all. Research, policy, and implementation infrastructure must be created and prioritized in the larger health agenda. CIGOH hopes to be a collaborator in the larger endeavor to establish the importance of oral health.

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