Oral health handbook goes digital
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a digital oral health handbook to promote oral health through text messages to the general public.
The handbook will also provide guidance on training for health workers, early detection of oral health conditions, collection of disease data and the monitoring of the quality of patience, all through mobile technologies.
Developed in collaboration with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the handbook-also known as mOralHealth- has four modules that are designed as flexible components that can be implemented individually or collectively, according to the country’s specific needs.
Its recommendations can be implemented as stand-alone activities or be integrated into existing non-communicable disease programmes.
It provides comprehensive instructions on how to complement existing oral health initiatives and oral health responses through mobile technologies.
WHO says oral diseases pose a major health burden for many countries and affect people throughout their lifetime, causing pain, discomfort, disfigurement and even death.
Common diseases
Factors contributing to oral diseases are an unhealthy diet high in sugar, use of tobacco and harmful use of alcohol.
It is estimated that oral diseases affect nearly 3.5 billion people.
Untreated dental caries (tooth decay) in permanent teeth is the most common health condition according to the Global Burden of Disease 2017. More than 530 million children suffer from dental caries of primary teeth (milk teeth).
Severe periodontal (gum) disease, which may result in tooth loss, is also very common, with almost 10 percent of the global population affected.
Oral cancer (cancer of the lip or mouth) is one of the three most common cancers in some countries of Asia and the Pacific.
Treatment for oral health conditions is expensive and usually not part of universal health coverage (UHC).
In most high-income countries, dental treatment averages 5percent of total health expenditure and 20 percent of out-of-pocket health expenditure.
Most low- and middle-income countries are unable to provide services to prevent and treat oral health conditions.
Most oral health conditions are largely preventable and can be treated in their early stages.
A report by Kenya’s Ministry of Health indicates that the majority of the oral health personnel are dentists. But the ratio of dentists to the general population remains dismally low at 1: 20,000 with 20 percent in rural areas and 80 percent in urban areas.
