This year’s theme ‘Healthy Mouth. Healthy Body.’ is a reminder that poor oral health is related to general health and has been associated with a number of  conditions such as heart disease^[i], pancreatic cancer^[ii], pneumonia^iI and lung diseaseⁱⁱ.

Furthermore, there is an indicated link between good oral health and overall health:  In one study 40% of people with serious gum disease also reported suffering from an additional chronic condition.^[iii] World Oral Health Day 2016 aims to educate people that good oral health goes beyond having a nice smile – it is fundamentally intertwined with overall well-being.

Dental practitioners have long been aware of the relationship between the mouth and the body: the FDI’s founding father opined that the dentist ‘is a little like a sentinel at the door of the human citadel … often it is he who sounds the first alarm that the whole organism is in danger’.

And this has certainly proved to be the case, for example, in the oral manifestations of HIV-AIDS^[1] and, from early on, documented examples of the oral manifestations of diabetes mellitus^[2]. FDI itself has also drawn attention to Oral Infection/Inflammation as a Risk Factor for Systemic Diseases^[3].

But the relationship goes further. In 2011, United Nations member states recognized “that  renal,  oral  and  eye  diseases  pose  a  major  health  burden  for  many  countries  and  that  these  diseases  share  common  risk  factors  and  can  benefit from common responses to non-communicable diseases;”^[4]

Collaboration between dental and other health sectors for better population health

This is why FDI believes that, working together with other medical specialties, we can highlight the dangers of certain behaviours and, through specific and targeted advocacy, achieve real changes in policy, with positive impacts for oral health and health in general.

For example, the recent announcement of a special tax on sugary drinks in the United Kingdom is a victory both in the fight against obesity and diabetes and against dental caries. Similarly, recent government tobacco control actions around the world favour not only cardio and respiratory health, they also support prevention and control of oral diseases and cancers of the oral cavity.

Pioneering preventative health

In 2012, WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan pointed out that dentistry pioneered the concept of preventive medicine, turning it into an art as well as a science. On 20 march 2016, we will be celebrating World Oral Health Day. We hope that we can count on our partners in all the other medical professions to support this initiative, follow us on social media and learn more about how initiatives by the dental profession will have a positive impact in our common areas of concern, in particular non-communicable diseases.

#ItAllStartsHere #WOHD16

FDI has created a WOHD smartphone game called ‘Mad Mouths’, available under the same name at Apple Store and Google Play. If you want to view the short WOHD video (it’s fun), it is on You tube at:

English: https://youtu.be/hbYjljFW1VM

Spanish: https://youtu.be/T8UakFckL3c

French: https://youtu.be/9x8DPqS_wDM

Good oral health goes beyond having a nice smile #ItAllStartsHere #WOHD2016