Serving Guinea-Bissau and its population

The Portuguese NGO Mundo a Sorrir has been working in Guinea-Bissau for over 7 years to improve the oral health of the population most in need. Its main objectives are to reduce the incidence of tooth decay, improve access of the general population to information on oral health problems and to increase the knowledge of the professionals working in this area.

Mundo a Sorrir has a decentralised approach working directly in the huts both in Bissau and in the countryside areas. Since its first intervention, the NGO has benefitted over 25.000 people (the majority children) in several cities namely: Bissau, Quinhamel, Gabu, Cumura, among others.

Situation on the ground

Guinea Bissau is a country of 1.3 million inhabitants located in sub-Saharan African and one of the poorest countries in the world. After achieving independence in the 1970s, one of the main governmental priorities was to implement a national health service and to reduce reliance on traditional forms of medicine.

Today, after all the efforts undertaken, 90% of the health sector still depends on external assistance and is far from reaching all the population. It is also possible to say that a significant part of the population, mainly in the interior of the country, does not have access to health services and still relies on the traditional forms of medicines (such as leaves) and ‘healers' rather than doctors.

Oral health is a totally neglected area: there are only 4 qualified dentists working in the country and a basic tooth brush costs around 500 CFA (about one US dollar), which is unaffordable for the majority of the population. As a consequence, miswak[1] is often used as an alternative.

Missing teeth, no fillings

It is shocking to realize that life expectancy in Guinea-Bissau is 46 years and that, at 35 years of age, the majority of the population has several missing teeth and no fillings at all. A person goes to see a dentist when they have a toothache and the unique objective to visit these professionals is to eliminate the pain by extracting the teeth.

The oral rehabilitation undertaken in the country is nearly inexistent. Therefore, there is an extreme need to improve the oral health services and to increase the access to the general population of information. Prevention can be the base of everything when carried out properly. Health professionals need to receive proper training and the general population needs to have access to basic oral health information.

Dental clinic

In 2008, Mundo a Sorrir lead to the creation of a dental clinic located in the Orphanage Casa Emanuel. Since then, several Portuguese, Spanish and Puerto Rican dentists have worked there as volunteers, allowing the population to receive treatment provided by properly trained dentists and to choose different types of treatment, from fillings to root canal fillings—having a tooth extracted is no longer the only treatment option).

In 2010, Mundo a Sorrir was the only Portuguese NGO awarded by the Starbucks foundation - and that was of great importance for the growth of the Guinea-Bissau project. Furthermore, in late 2011 the NGO was able to send one volunteer for a period of 9 months to work as a dentist.

Work in the field

The benefits of having a dentist in the field for so long are tremendous: we believe that by the time she returns, the amount of treatment provided and activities carried out will be substantial; and therefore, the benefits to the population will be enormous.

As a consequence of the excellent work provided over these 7 years at an international level, several organizations have been in contact with Mundo a Sorrir in an attempt to establish local partnerships.

Moreover, in 2011, Mundo a Sorrir was invited to give a talk at the Annual meeting of the International College of Dentists and to work has an oral health consultant for a project undertaken by the International Youth Foundation in India.

Thank you to Mundo a Sorrir for providing us with this report

IDEM: a major dental event in 2012

A cutting edge scientific programme and extensive exhibition of the latest international technologies and techniquespromise to make this year's International Dental Exhibition and Meeting (IDEM Singapore) one of the must-attend events of 2012 in the field of dentistry and dental equipment.

IDEM Singapore, to be held in Singapore from 20 to 22 April, is organised by the Singapore Dental Association (SDA) and Koelnmesse, in cooperation with FDI, and supported by, among others, the Singapore Ministry of Health.

National pavilions
This seventh edition of the event will be showcasing the latest innovations in clinical dentistry, dental technology and patient care across every segment of the dental market, covering restorative and preventive treatments, surgical procedures and equipment, orthodontics, endodontics, periodontics and laboratory tools.

It will feature nine national pavilions—from Australia, France, Germany, Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States—and more than 380 exhibitors from over 30 countries, reflecting a truly global view of the profession.

Continuing education
FDI Continuing Education programmes take place, on average, once every two weeks in a different region of the world: the 2012 Scientific Conference at IDEM Singapore is a notable date on FDI's Continuing Education calendar.

It is second in scope only to the Scientific Programme of the FDI Annual World Dental Congress, scheduled to take place 29 August to 1 September in Hong Kong.

IDEM Singapore 2012 will continue to offer dentists and dental professionals

Continuing Professional Education (CPE) points: they can look forward to acquiring over 30 CPE points by attending the conferences and workshops at the event.

Advances and controversies
Reflecting the rising sophistication and emergence of complexities in dental technologies and treatments in recent years, the IDEM Singapore Scientific Conference for 2012 is aptly themed Advances and Controversies.

Seventeen experts from Australia, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States will present the latest treatments, procedures and trends in various dental fields. Recognizing the increasingly important role dental assistants play in patient care, IDEM Singapore 2012 will feature a workshop, specifically targeted at dental assistants, on restorative implants.

Speaker line-up
The line-up of speakers includes: Dr. Dennis Tarnow, from Columbia School of Dental Medicine; Dr. Urs Belser, recipient of the Scientific Research Award from the Greater New York Academy, joined by Dr. Michel Magne and Dr. Pascal Magne, world-class names in the field of Aesthetics Dentistry; and Dr. Connie Drisko, a leading Periodontist and Dean at Georgia Health Sciences University College of Dental Medicine.

"With a stellar line-up of world-renowned names, we hope that dental professionals both locally and from across the region will take the opportunity for a glimpse into the future of dentistry in Asia," said Dr. Philip Goh, President, Singapore Dental Association.

List of speakers

Dr Connie Drisko	Dr Dennis Tarnow	Dr Markus Heibach	Dr Urs Belser	Mr Gianfranco Berrutti

Student leaders
In partnership with the Asia Pacific Dental Students Association (APDSA), top student leaders from the region will also be gathering at IDEM Singapore 2012, acting as ambassadors for their respective countries, sharing with participants the landscape of their local dental industries.

In addition, these students will have the rare opportunity to hear from leading professionals in various fields of dentistry and be inspired to achieve excellence in their future dental careers.

More on IDEM Singapore 2012 at www.idem-singapore.com.

NCD strategy must address oral diseases

"The quest for prevention and control of NCDs would not be complete without addressing oral diseases," FDI told the WHO Executive Board, meeting in Geneva from 16 to 20 January 2012.

In an intervention on 19 January, FDI called upon WHO to take four specific actions regarding oral health and NCDs: first, to ensure that oral diseases are incorporated into NCD programmes and included in national health planning, and second, to include oral diseases at the same level as the four main NCDs in the Global NCD Monitoring framework, its indicators and targets.

FDI's third recommended action is to add a target related to reducing days at school or work missed due to oral diseases, which would also address wider determinants of health and general development. Finally, it called upon WHO to develop and agree a set of optional and more comprehensive oral health targets and indicators for which global oral health community can make precise proposals.

FDI strategy

FDI's intervention at WHO follows its successful bid along with the sustained efforts of a number of other governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, to have oral diseases specifically referred to in the Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs agreed at the United Nations Summit in September 2011.

The Declaration's Article 19 now recognizes that "renal, oral and eye diseases pose a major health burden for many countries and that these diseases share common risk factors and can benefit from common responses to non-communicable diseases".

Monitoring

Since that time, FDI has intensified its contacts with WHO and attended key events such as the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health held in Rio de Janeiro from 19 to 21 October.

Further, FDI attended an informal dialogue with NGOs last December as part of the preparatory process for the January consultation. There, FDI emphasised the need for oral health indicators, with the need to identify targets for children (see page 3).

Later, on 21 December 2011, Dr da Silva and Executive Director Dr Jean-Luc Eiselé, met with to key WHO executives to discuss the sustainability of the WHO oral health programme in the light of a 20% cutback in WHO, which, Dr da Silva conceded might indeed have an impact on the oral health budget. He emphasized, nonetheless, that "It's up to FDI, not WHO, to develop and formulate the oral health message! It's FDI's role to influence the WHO's agenda on the topics that we feel are crucial."

Its presence and statement at the January WHO Executive Board very much reflects FDI's intention of doing so.

Post-UN Summit

In its resolution (Resolution EB130.R7) issued following the Executive Board Meeting, WHO urged Members States to implement the UN Political Declaration and draw upon the policies, strategies, programmes and interventions, and tools recommended by WHO.

Further, WHO urged members States to strengthen their commitment to implementing noncommunicable disease programmes and participate fully in the WHO-led process of developing a comprehensive global monitoring framework, including a set of indicators.

Key requests

The resolution, co-sponsored by Australia, Barbados, Canada, Costa Rica, Kenya, Norway, Russia, Switzerland and the US, was intended to ensure WHO has a clear timeline for the actions required of it by the Political Declaration.
 

Its calls for action include a request to WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan to submit a substantive progress report on the development of a framework, includinga set of indicators and targets, to the sixty-fifthWorld Health Assembly in May 2012) and complete the work on the global monitoring framework, including a set of targets and indicators, based on a Member State consultation held before the end of 2012.

Timeline

The current Global Action Plan on NCDs expires next year. The nextwill run from 2013 to 2020 and it is imperative for WHO to have a draft ready for consideration by the WHO Executive Board at its January 2013 meeting.

More on FDI, NCDs and Oral Health

NCDs: WHO's post-UN-Summit activity

FDI, a "highly respected partner of WHO"

FDI at key world health event

FDI: federating to achieve goals

FDI omnipresent during 2-day UN Summit

Oral diseases are obstacles to development, says UNDP

FDI + NDAs = success at UN Summit

FDI produces Media Kit for World Oral Health Day 2011

Live.Learn.Laugh: update

2011 was a very successful year for the FDI World Dental Federation's partnership with Unilever Oral Care, known as Live.Learn.Laugh. Over the course of the year, 27 National Dental Associations from around the world worked with their Unilever Oral Care partners to set up oral health improvement projects that aim to measurably improve oral health through encouraging twice daily brushing with a fluoride toothpaste.

These projects, now up and running, are making a real difference to oral health around the world.

Workshops

The progress of partnership was assisted by a global workshop, held in May last year, which helped partnership teams plan and launch their projects. A similar workshop is scheduled for February in Turkey, to give project leaders from participating National Dental Associations the opportunity to discuss practical aspects of the project implementation and management, with a special focus on project evaluation.

This evaluation aspect will be particularly important given partnership teams will be approaching key milestones over the course of 2012 and want to produce interim results.

FDI World Dental Federation is proud of the partnership's achievements and looks forward seeing the results of another successful year, working in partnership to measurably improving the oral health on a global scale.

Oral health and NCDs: FDI to produce Advocacy Guide

FDI is in the process of preparing an Advocacy Guide on oral health and noncommunicable diseases for its member national dental associations. It will include a themed analysis of the Political Declaration resulting from the United Nations Summit on NCDs, held in New York last September.

UN Declarations are statements of intent, adopted and agreed by UN Member States. It is very much up to interested parties to follow up and ensure that, within the context of any Declaration, the UN and its agencies carry out tasks assigned to them and that national governments are accountable for the undertakings they have made.

FDI, by virtue of its presence in Geneva, is well placed to maintain contacts with the UN and other international agencies such as WHO and thereby ensure international follow-up.

National follow-up

However, it is only FDI NDAs that are in a position to follow up the commitments that their respective governments have signed on to. The FDI Advocacy Guide is designed to supply them with the explanations and information they need to raise the subject of oral health and NCDs with their ministers of health/chief dental officers.

It provides suggestions on how the Declaration might be used to motivate and support national governments tasked with implementing its commitments.

The NCD Advocacy Guide is set to be launched during the Chicago Dental Society 147th Midwinter Meeting (23–25 February 2012).