Whole mouth health
Oral diseases affect approximately half of the global population (3.58 billion people), and they are the most common noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. Oral diseases impact people throughout their lifetime and have been linked to maternal infections as well as systemic diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Improving health literacy for better oral health
Health literacy is the ability to understand and take action on health information and make decisions about personal well-being. Health literacy enables people to become autonomous in their health management and engage in informed health choices with their healthcare provider. Limited oral health literacy disproportionality affects people in certain groups, contributing to challenges with health equity, in-turn leading to poorer health outcomes overall and an increased risk of dental caries and periodontal disease.
It is essential to make patients aware that good oral health does not stop at only brushing. The Whole Mouth Health project was launched in 2019 to promote oral health literacy as important for everyday prevention, and to create a platform that focuses on oral health literacy by offering personalized dental health education in a way people can understand and apply to their lives.
Project goals
Goal 1
Identify the oral health literacy principles needed to achieve whole mouth health and to highlight the importance of patient understanding for better oral health outcomes
Goal 2
Provide tools and resources to empower clinicians to deliver patient-centred oral health messages and allow patients to make better oral health choices through an understanding of those messages
Goal 3
Advocate globally to promote oral health literacy as an important element of everyday prevention
The Whole Mouth Health project is supported by Colgate.
