Penn Dental Medicine, Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders to Present Forum on WHO Resolution on Oral Health
Philadelphia – With the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly recently taking action to put oral health on the global health agenda, Penn Dental Medicine’s Center for Integrative Global Oral Health (CIGOH) and the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders (AOHAB) are collaborating to present a forum on the impact of this historic resolution.
Dr. Benoit Varenne
Dr. Christopher Fox
The virtual event, July 14, 9-10:15 a.m. (ET), will feature a keynote address by Dr. Benoit Varenne, WHO’s Chief Dental Officer, discussing the meaning of this global resolution. Facilitating and responding to the conversation will be Dr. Christopher Fox, Chief Executive Officer of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR)/American Association for Dental Research (AADR), and Enzo Bondioni, Executive Director of the FDI World Dental Federation.
“It is tremendous to see this step taken by the World Health Assembly to acknowledge on a global level the vital role of oral health to overall health,” says Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Dr. Mark S. Wolff, who is also a member of the Advisory Committee to the AOHAB Board.
Enzo Bondioni
Recognizing the global extent of oral diseases and their link with other health conditions, the resolution calls on member states to address oral health’s shared risk factors with other noncommunicable diseases to enhance the capacity of oral health professionals to deliver care. It also recommends a focus on prevention that includes promotion of oral health within the family, schools, and workplaces, and the inclusion of oral health care in universal, primary health coverage programs.
Through this resolution, the delegates of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of WHO, asked WHO to develop a draft global strategy on tackling oral diseases by 2022, and by 2023, to translate that strategy into an action plan for global oral health.
Attendees to the forum can earn free continuing dental education credits; the program will also be available online after the livestream on July 14. Learn more and register >>