Promoting oral health in primary health care settings

This course is also available in the following languages: العربية

Overview: The state of oral health in several countries including those in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) has been marginalized due to factors like lack of trained workforce and basic oral health services. The course has been developed by a joint team of Health Promotion Programme at the Division of Healthier Populations, the Primary Health Care Programme at the Division of Universal Health System at WHO/EMRO, and the Institute of Advanced Dental Sciences and Research, Pakistan. Several elements of the information mentioned in the course have been adapted from “Promoting Oral Health in Africa: Prevention and control of oral diseases and noma as part of essential noncommunicable disease interventions” The course introduces a Basic Package for Oral Care (BPOC). The Package emphasizes the principles of community-based oral health promotion, utilizing the common risk factor approach. It also incorporates some preventive and treatment strategies which are effective, feasible, affordable, and generally acceptable to the community, and which can be provided within the existing framework of the primary health care (PHC) system prevalent in low resource countries.

The course has been divided into two parts. Part 1: Basic (Module 1-4) will provide a basic understanding of the common dental diseases and their risk factors; their epidemiology and aetiology; and oral manifestations of common systemic diseases. Part 2: Advanced (Module 5-7) will provide information about the prevention of oral diseases by PHC workers; oral health and disease surveillance; management of common oral diseases and conditions at the PHC level.

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Learn about the basic tooth structure, the epidemiology, aetiology, situation analysis, and risk factors of common oral diseases primarily in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region;
• Identify common risk factors of oral and major Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs);
• Develop an understanding of the basic principles of oral health promotion and advocacy, and the social determinants of oral health.
• Enhance knowledge regarding various measures of oral disease prevention.
• Develop knowledge of oral health indices and surveillance of Oral health status.
• Understand and apply protocols for diagnosing and managing common oral diseases in low resource settings.

Course duration: Approximately 3 hours.

Certificates: A Confirmation of Participation is available to participants who complete 100% of the course material.