Oral health around the world means more than strong and health teeth; as the World Health Organization’s Oral Health Programme highlights:
[Oral health] is integral to general health and essential for well-being. It implies being free of chronic oro-facial pain, oral and pharyngeal (throat) cancer, oral tissue lesions, birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, and other diseases and disorders that affect the oral, dental and craniofacial tissues, collectively known as the craniofacial complex.’
That is why HVO collaborates with clinics and universities in Cambodia, Kenya, Nicaragua, and Tanzania; improving the quality and availability of oral health care – both dentistry and oral/maxillofacial surgery – transforms lives. For nearly three decades, Health Volunteers Overseas has been working to address the need for oral health care globally. Working with care providers and students in resource-scarce countries, HVO volunteers have provided lectures, chair-side training, mentoring and professional development opportunities. Oral health care topics have included general dentistry, preventative medicine, oral cancer, maxillofacial surgery and more. Learn more by visiting our oral health program page.
If you’re attending the 2014 American Dental Association Annual Meeting this week, be sure to visit HVO staff at booth 2212 in the exhibit hall to learn how you can help improve global oral health.