Oral Health?Neglected Area on Global Health Map

Abstract

Oral health is an important international public health issue; impacting individuals, communities, health systems, economies and society at large. More importantly, it is one of the most neglected areas on global health map to the current understanding on the mechanism of initiation and progression of oral disease; there are still certain lacunae present in our knowledge of prevention of periodontal disease. In spite of vast understanding of the disease, the inability to identify high-risk forms exists. Prevention of oral diseases and the ability to detect disease activity at an early stage are yet unexplored in Dentistry. These disparities need to be reckoned for seeking better solutions and future policies for improvement in global oral health. To understand and resolve these oral health disparities are a need of hour otherwise it will widen the gap between developed and developing countries. A data-based search was conducted using Google scholar Medline search using terms oral health, health inequalities, global disease, oral health disparities.