What is The Lancet Commission on Oral Health?
In July 2019 The Lancet published a ground-breaking Oral Health Series that highlighted the global public health importance of oral diseases and the need for a radically different policy agenda to tackle this major problem. In recognition of the global public health importance, woeful neglect of oral diseases, and the need for a broader understanding and commitment to global oral health within medicine and global health agendas, The Lancet in early 2020 established a Commission on Oral Health.
What are the aims of the Commission?
The aims of the commission is to do a scientific review, inquiry, and response to an urgent and often neglected or understudied health predicament. The Lancet Commissions are science-led, international, and multidisciplinary collaborations that aim to achieve transformational change with a particular focus on policy or political action.
Read more about Commissions from The Lancet journals.
What are the sub-working groups?
Explore best practices to raise the political and policy profile of oral health and integrate oral health within the wider health policy and development frameworks.
Develop improved evidence-based monitoring systems to assess oral health equity, review evidence of effectiveness of interventions to reduce oral health inequalities, and inform policy development to promote oral health equity.
Provide evidence to support policy and decision makers to develop robust and resilient (oral) health care systems across the globe including human resources, payment systems, integrated delivery models, appropriate technology, and minimising environmental impact.
Highlight and expose the influence of industry and profit motives on all aspects of oral health including education, research, service delivery and policy, and develop appropriate means of minimising this influence and improving the transparency of industry relationships with oral health stakeholders.
Guiding Principles
- Transformative, bold message
- Innovative ideas
- Compelling and convincing
- Critical and challenging view for change
- Inclusive
- Create an active afterlife to achieve longer term and sustainable impact
- Meaningful in purpose
- Cross disciplinary
- Inspiring and Optimistic
- Forward thinking
- Provide actionable conclusions for political, policy and professional audiences
- Global
Publications related to the commissions work
- Oral Heath Series
- Oral diseases: a global public health challenge
- Oral diseases: a global public health challenge – Authors’ reply
- Ending the neglect of global oral health: time for radical action
- IADR and AADR applaud the Lancet Oral Health Series – Authors’ reply
- The WHO global strategy for oral health: an opportunity for bold action
- The global oral health workforce – Authors’ reply
- Oral health at a tipping point
- Richard Watt: time to tackle oral diseases
- Time for noma to enter the global health stage
- WHO calls to end the global crisis of oral health
- Including oral diseases and conditions in universal health coverage
- Universal health coverage cannot be universal without oral health
This Commission is supported by The Lancet.
The Commission would like to express its thanks and gratitude to the Borrow Foundation for their generous support of this Lancet Commission. Funding has also been received from the UCL Faculty of Population Health, UCL Eastman Dental Institute and the UCLH National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre – Oral Health and Disease Theme.