The Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the World Health Organization’s Draft Global Strategy on Oral Health. In May 2021, the Platform warmly welcomed the World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA74.5 (2021) on oral health, which recognised the global public health importance of major oral diseases and conditions.

This Draft Global Strategy on Oral Health fully aligns with the Platform’s commitment to integrating oral health as part of general health and promoting cross-sectoral cooperation on good oral health. In a detailed response to the WHO’s consultation, available for download below, the Platform highlighted the priorities and recommendations that we believe will be key to developing a successful Global Strategy on Oral Health.

Furthermore, we set out a number of recommendations for incorporating into the final version of the Global Strategy:

• We were very pleased to note that the draft Global Strategy realizes the importance of public health as a key vehicle for the improvement of oral health of populations.
• We fully support the emphasis on primary care and a life course approach to address the excessive burden of oral diseases and conditions and meet population needs.
• We recommended that the strategic focus of the Global Strategy emphasizes ‘oral health’ rather than ‘oral disease’.
• We suggested a stronger priority for addressing inequalities in oral health, applying the broader social determination framework, and leveraging the momentum of the Resolution WHA74.16 (2021) on Social Determinants of Health.
• We commended the Global Strategy for recognizing the important role of international and civil society partners in achieving the goal and objectives of the strategy at global, regional and national levels.

In the coming months, the Platform stands ready to support the development of a global action plan on oral health at European level, to ensure that by 2030, good oral health can also become a reality for all.