Heraklion 2024

Summary of EADPH Pre-Congress Workshop on essential oral health care held in Heraklion on 24th September 2024

In September 2024, a workshop was held, during the EADPH conference in Crete, —sponsored by Colgate —to explore what constitutes essential oral healthcare and what the challenges and solutions in adopting universal health coverage. The workshop was sponsored by Colgate.

Dr Vujicic from the World Economic Forum, summarised and referenced “the economic rationale for global commitment to invest in oral health” report. In his report, he emphasised that productivity losses due to dental conditions surpass those associated with other non-communicable diseases.  The launch of the WHO Global Oral Health Action Plan for Oral Health has brought oral health to the limelight in the context of the wider Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) agenda. One of the targets is for 70% of the population to have access to UHC by 2030. This ambitious target hopes to gain momentum, and it is important to explore what barriers may be posed and what potential solutions can be adopted to advance this agenda.

The workshop considered the definitions of essential oral health care and the current situation in a variety of regions across Europe: South European Region giving examples from Italy, Spain and Greece, Eastern Europe with Romania, England, Malta and France.  There were no agreed definitions of essential oral healthcare. Several countries defined this differently and therefore there was no agreed consensus on this concept.

The presentations were then followed by breakout groups to explore the following:

  • What oral health services & which population groups should be publicly funded?
  • What are the most frequently demanded oral health services at your practice/ in your region?
  • What are the most frequently provided services at your practice/ in your region?
  • Which of these services are publicly covered and for whom?
  • What are the barriers and enablers for reaching universal health coverage?

A manuscript has been submitted to the Community Dental Journal to report the findings from the workshop and acknowledges Marko Vujicic, Aristomenis Syngelakis, Paula Vassallo, Stephanie Tubert-Jeannin and Roxana Oancea for their valuable contributions.