Oral Health through Fluoride

The FDI World Dental Federation held a Global Consultation on Oral Health through Fluoride in Geneva on 17-19 November 2006. The consultation was jointly organised by the FDI World Dental Federation, International Association for Dental Research (IADR), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

A follow-up conference was held in Beijing, China in September 2007. This conference was organised by the FDI, IADR, WHO and Chinese Stomatological Association and was called the Conference on Oral Health through Fluoride for China and Southeast Asia.

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Over the pas few years, the FDI World Dental Federation has issued several policy statements regarding fluoride:
- Fluoride in restorative materials (2009)
- Promoting Dental Health through Fluoride (2008)
- Promoting Dental Health through Fluoride Toothpaste (2008)
- Promoting Dental Health through Water Fluoridation (2008)
- Topical and systemic fluorides in children with renal diseases (2009)

Ces déclarations de principe sont également disponibles en français.

 

Global Consultation on Oral Health through Fluoride

17-19 November 2006 / Geneva, Switzerland

The consultation, jointly organised by the FDI World Dental Federation, the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), and the WHO, aimed to consider the actions needed to effectively reduce the global burden of dental caries. It draws on the alliance's range and areas of expertise: the FDI is the unified voice of oral health professionals around the world; the IADR advances research for the improvement of oral health worldwide; and the WHO, the accepted leader in global health matters, advises governmental bodies throughout the world.

The benefits of fluoride for the prevention and control of dental caries has been known to the scientific and public health community for more than sixty years. While fluoride in various delivery systems is widely available in many developed countries, it is estimated that globally only 20 percent of the world's population benefit from appropriate exposure to fluoride.

Press release from the Consultation 

Declaration from the Consultation (pdf)

Call to Action to Promote Dental Health by Using Fluoride 
Appel Pour Une Action Pour La Promotion De La Santé Dentaire Par L'utilisation Du Fluor
Llamado A La Acción Para Promover La Salud Dental Utilizando Fluoruro
Aufruf Zur Förderung Der Zahngesundheit Durch Den Einsatz Von Fluorid

Conference Participants:

Preliminary Consultation Programme
Download conference documents

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Conference on Oral Health through Fluoride for China and Southeast Asia

17-18 September 2007 / Beijing, China

Press release from the Conference 

Declaration from the Conference (pdf)

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Global affordability of fluoride toothpaste

A team of researchers, which includes Dr Habib Benzian of the FDI, Dr Ann Goldman of the School of Public Health and Health Services at the George Washington University in Washington D.C., Dr Robert Yee and Dr Christopher Holmgren, experts to the FDI World Dental Development and Health Promotion Committee, compared the relative affordability of fluoride toothpaste in 48 countries. This study is the first to attempt to quantify the affordability of toothpaste across the globe.

According to the study, fluoride toothpaste is prohibitively expensive for the world's poorest people. Researchers revealed that the poorest populations of developing countries have the least access to affordable toothpaste.

Abstract 

Objective: Dental caries remains the most common disease worldwide and the use of fluoride toothpaste is a most effective preventive public health measure to prevent it. Changes in diets following globalization contribute to the development of dental caries in emerging economies. The aim of this paper is to compare the cost and relative affordability of fluoride toothpaste in high-, middle- and low-income countries. The hypothesis is that fluoride toothpaste is not equally affordable in high-, middle- and low-income countries.

Methods: Data on consumer prices of fluoride toothpastes were obtained from a selfcompletion questionnaire from 48 countries. The cost of fluoride toothpaste in high-, middle- and low-income countries was compared and related to annual household expenditure as well as to days of work needed to purchase the average annual usage of toothpaste per head.

Results: The general trend seems to be that the proportion of household expenditure required to purchase the annual dosage of toothpaste increases as the country's per capita household expenditure decreases. While in the UK for the poorest 30% of the population only 0.037 days of household expenditure is needed to purchase the annual average dosage (182.5g) of the lowest cost toothpaste, 10.75 days are needed in Kenya. The proportion of annual household expenditure ranged from 0.02% in the UK to 4% in Zambia to buy the annual average amount of lowest cost toothpaste per head.

Conclusion: Significant inequalities in the affordability of this essential preventive care product indicate the necessity for action to make it more affordable. Various measures to improve affordability based on experiences from essential pharmaceuticals are proposed.

Access to Article

The article, "Global affordability of fluoride toothpaste", Ann S Goldman, Robert Yee, Christopher J Holmgren and Habib Benzian, was published on the Globalization and Heatlth on 13 June 2008.

FDI Press Release