Newsletter
LONDON, UK: The Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future, an international group of experts that promotes an integrated clinical and public health effort, has announced a new European chapter to bring together experts in dentistry and public health to create a collaborative focus for the implementation of key changes to dental health practices across Europe. One of the alliance’s targets is to enable every child born from 2026 to stay cavity free during his or her lifetime.
The alliance, first launched as a global initiative in 2010, calls for joint action to challenge leaders and stakeholders in the community to learn the importance of caries as a disease continuum by recognising that cavities are preventable and that in the early stages caries is reversible, and to develop comprehensive programmes for the prevention and management of dental caries appropriate for individual regions.
Findings from a new omnibus survey of 4,500 European adults conducted online have highlighted the need for further education about dental caries at a public health level. Over one-third (38 per cent) of the people surveyed in Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK this year believe that sooner or later everyone will develop cavities. Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) agreed that they do not do enough to prevent dental caries, and nearly one-fifth (18 per cent) admitted they had poor or no understanding of how to prevent cavities.
According to 2013 figures from the WHO, dental caries affects up to 80 per cent of the world’s population. European countries have seen a marked improvement in levels of dental caries over the last 30 years; however, in many segments of the population, dental caries remains a significant burden, a study revealed in 2008.
“Across Europe, we have a plethora of expertise, ideas and tools that could dramatically improve the way we manage dental health,” commented Prof. Nigel Pitts, Director of the Dental Innovation and Translation Centre at the King’s College London Dental Institute and chair of the Global Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future. “But we need to harness this knowledge, put evidence into both policy and practice, and standardise the way we measure, classify and manage the problem across Europe.”
At a global level, the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future has set three long-term goals. First, by 2015, 90 per cent of dental schools and dental associations should have embraced and promoted the new approach of caries as a continuum to improve dental caries prevention and management. Second, by 2020, regional members of the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future should have developed and implemented integrated, locally appropriate, comprehensive caries prevention and management systems and monitoring. Third, every child born from 2026 should stay cavity free during his or her lifetime.
The sub-goals of the new European Chapter of the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future are to bring together the most influential experts in Europe who share common objectives and provide support and feedback to the Global Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future board, to address inequalities in caries prevention and control across Europe, and to gain further ratification from leading European dental organisations that support the mission and goals of the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future in order to identify and address major information gaps in caries prevention.
“The level of resources and intervention from both a public health and clinical perspective is inconsistent across Europe,” added Svante Twetman, Professor of Cariology at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, who will co-chair the European Chapter alongside Pitts. “This means that people are suffering from a problem we know how to stop. Dental caries deserves greater attention in order to elevate it as an important health issue.”
Further information on the launch of the European Chapter is available at www.family.allianceforacavityfreefuture.org/en/us/whats-new.
