Main

Williams DM, Sheiham A et al. J Dent Res 2015;94: 875–877

It is unfitting to use in Africa, with an estimated population of 1.033 billion, an oral health strategy based on '...traditional Western-style prevention and treatment approaches that tend to perpetuate existing inequalities'. WHO has even proclaimed 'interventions which only tackle adverse health behaviours will have little success.' In addition, any such 'restorative approach' would require unachievable manpower levels. A solution should be grounded in a programme that integrates oral and general health ('oral health in all policies' - OHiAP). This must embrace an upstream approach addressing the social determinants of health, shaping the environments where people are 'born, grow, live, work, and age.' These determinants for oral health have commonality for other non-communicable chronic diseases. Similar approaches could be adopted to prevent traumatic dental injuries. There are an estimated 15% of children in these regions that have sustained traumatic dental injuries. In the substantive paper (Adv Dent Res 2015;27: 4–9) on which this invited editorial was based, strategies are proposed to minimise such injuries including legislation and regulation.