Research from National Dental Centre Singapore in the Area of Dentistry Published (Advancing Universal Oral Health Coverage via Person-Centred Outcomes): Dentistry

2023 DEC 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on dentistry. According to news reporting out of the National Dental Centre Singapore by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The World Health Organization member states proposed a comprehensive ‘Global Strategy on Oral Health,’ which includes achieving universal oral health coverage by 2030. Challenges and barriers, including persistent inequalities, will hamper the achievement of universal oral health coverage.”

Funders for this research include Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond.

Our news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from National Dental Centre Singapore: “In low- and middle-income countries, the oral health of a large proportion of the population has been neglected, increasing oral health inequalities. In high-income countries, some receive excessive dental treatment, whilst particularly those with higher needs receive too little dental care. Therefore, an analysis of individual countries’ needs, encompassing the training of oral health professionals in a new philosophy of care and attention and the optimisation of the existing resources, is necessary. Distancing from a person-centred focus has prompted individual and societal issues, including under-/overdiagnosis and under-/overtreatment. The person-centred approach considers the perceptions, needs, preferences, and circumstances of individuals and populations. Patient-reported outcome measures, such as self-rated and -reported health, reflect an individual’s overall perception of health and are designed to mediate human biology (ie, the disease) and psychology.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The usage of patient-reported outcome measures in dentistry to place the individual at the centre of treatment is delayed compared to other areas. This paper discusses some challenges and potential solutions of patient-reported outcome measures in dentistry for achieving universal oral health coverage.”

For more information on this research see: Advancing Universal Oral Health Coverage via Person-Centred Outcomes. International Dental Journal, 2023,73(6):793-799. The publisher for International Dental Journal is Elsevier.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.identj.2023.06.006.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Gustavo G. Nascimento, National Dental Research Institute Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, Singapore. Additional authors for this research include Eero Raittio, Vanessa Machado, Fabio R.M. Leite, Joao Botelho.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)