During the 2008 EADPH congress in Heidelberg, six Special Interest Group (SIG) Workshops were launched. Since then, SIGs have met in Tromso (2009), Constanta (2010), Rome (2011), London (2012), Malta (2013), Göteborg (2014, Istanbul (2015), Budapest (2016), Vilnius (2017), Palma de Mallorca (2018), Ghent (2019), Montpellier (2022), Riga (2023) and Heraklion (2024). In 2012, two further groups (Quality of Life and Dental Public Health Education) were established, and one group (Health Services Research) was terminated. In 2017, it was decided to start in 2018 another SIG, Oral Health and Special Care Dentistry, which was approved by the AGM. This group started working in 2018. In 2019, the EADPH Executive Board decided to change the name of SIG Periodontal Epidemiology to Special Interest Group in Periodontology.

In 2022 and 2023, EADPH has consulted with its members regarding the restructuring of SIGs in line with the interests of members, current public health challenges and the WHO Oral Health Action Plan. 

The following SIGs where established::

  1. SIG: Oral cancer prevention 
  2. SIG: Addressing inequalities by improving the oral health of vulnerable groups
  3. SIG: Strategies to improve the oral health of children especially socio-economically deprived
  4. SIG: Oral health care within Universal Health Coverage and General Health Care
  5. SIG: Caries – Moving Towards Translating Research into Policy
  6. SIG: SustainOral: sustainable community-based strategies to prevent oral disease
  7. SIG: Workforce Education and Training Special Interest Group
  8. SIG: Digitalization and Innovation

 

The aims of SIGs are to:

  • – Bring together people with an interest in a variety of public health themes which are in line to the WHO Oral Health Action Plan.
  • – Explore and discuss the “current state of the art and science” in the theme or a part of the theme.
  • – Identify work that needs to be done to improve the “current state of the art and science”.
  • – Promote appropriate collaborations, for example with/among individuals, stakeholders and organisations, to address the identified deficiencies.
  • – Produce appropriate outcomes, for example toolkits and guidelines or webinars, position statements, policy documents, scientific articles, state-of-the-art papers, editorials, declarations, that set out the “current state of the art and science” and future work that needs to be carried out to improve it.

 

Dr. Lina Stangvaltaite-Mouhat coordinates SIGs; if you are interested in one of the SIGs, please contact her through: special-interest@eadph.org.

 

Position Papers of Special Interest Groups

In 2011, Prof Andreas Schulte wrote an editorial for Community Dental Health about the activities of the EADPH Special Interest Working Groups. Position papers are available from the Periodontology Group, from the Tooth Surface Loss/Erosion Group and from the Health Services Group. These documents can be downloaded here.

In the 2024 AGM, membership voted for the proposals within new SIG themes.