National Oral Health Policy coming

The Minister of Health, Therese Baptiste-Cornelis, has made a commitment to make oral health a priority in Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking at a meeting with local dentists on Wednesday, she said oral health is essential to the general health of a population. However, she noted that socio-economic restraints often affect diet, education and access to health care, housing and work, and as a consequence, these often correspond to poor oral health. This is in addition to lifestyle factors, such as tobacco use, high intake of sugars and excessive alcohol consumption.

She also referred to research which show that more than 90% of systemic diseases, such as diabetes, leukemia, cancers, heart disease and kidney disease, have oral manifestations including swollen gums, mouth ulcers, dry mouth and/or excessive gum problems.

Minister Baptiste-Cornelis said government would like to bring the population to the point where every citizen has regular oral examinations so health problems can be diagnosed in their early stages.

At the moment, she said the Ministry is in the process of creating a new National Oral Health Policy which will be consistent with what has been outlined by the World Health Organization.

"The considerations are: Effective use of fluoride for the prevention of dental caries; Oral health and prevention of oral disease through a healthy diet; Control of tobacco-related oral disease; Oral health improvement of children through health promotion in schools; Oral health improvement among elderly people; Integration of oral health into national and community health programmes based on oral health, general health and quality of life interrelationships; Development of oral health systems and orientation of services towards prevention and health promotion; Strengthening the prevention of HIV/AIDS-related oral disease; Development oral health information systems: evidence for oral health policy, formulation of goals and targets, and measuring progress; Research on oral health; Oral health improvement for persons with special needs."

The Minister also stated that improved oral health in citizens is becoming even more possible as there has been an increase in the dentist to population ratio which now stands at 1:3,858, as compared to 1980 when the ratio stood at 1:14,240.