CDA Essentials 2019 • Volume 6 • Issue 4

9 Issue 4 | 2019 | CDA at W ork I n April, I joined leaders from organizations within and outside dentistry to discuss—for the first time in Canada—a central question raised by the CDA Task Force on the Future of the Profession: how should we define oral health? Brought together by a shared concern about inequities in oral health, we came to Ottawa to participate in the Canadian Oral Health Roundtable (COHR), an annual event hosted by CDA (p. 11). The people in attendance recognized that collectively, we all can do more to improve oral health outcomes for everyone in Canada. In starting a conversation about what oral health means and the implications of defining it, oral health can then be framed as part of a broader conversation about the social determinants of health. Finding common ground across a range of disciplines encourages the kind of collaborations that will be needed to make progress in better serving people with the greatest risks for poor oral health—the estimated 20–25% of the population that doesn’t have adequate access to oral care, largely because of insufficient funding of public programs or affordability issues. Currently, there is no established standard of care that would ensure the basic oral health needs of the entire Canadian population are met. My colleague, Dr. Lynn Tomkins, fellow CDA Board member and chair of CDA’s Delivery of Care Task Force, gave an excellent presentation that outlined three elements of “essential dental care”: (1) care that is based on a commonly understood definition of oral health, (2) care that is person-centred, in that it considers individual need from conception to end of life, and (3) care that covers the spectrum of health care delivery, including routine care, complex care by specialists, and specialized care in hospital settings, depending on patient need. COHR participants brainstormed in small groups to discuss the definition of oral health adopted by the FDI World Dental Federation in 2016—a comprehensive definition that reflects both physical and mental aspects of well- being. What became clear during the group discussions is that oral health can mean different things to different people. Yet we can’t have a conversation about essential dental care without first agreeing on a clear definition of oral health. Although this may seem obvious to dentists, it’s important that oral health also mean the same thing to other health professionals, as well as other groups. Getting everyone on the same page will lay the groundwork for joint advocacy efforts to improve access to care with governments and plan sponsors or in negotiations with third-party payers, like insurance companies. Although there is no perfect definition of oral health, the CDA Board has now officially adopted the FDI definition (p. 11), joining the many other national dental associations to have done so. Using this definition of oral health, the next steps will be to develop key messages that will resonate with the broadest range of stakeholders. Defining essential dental care can help people get the care they need to produce outcomes that are important to them. It can serve as the foundation needed to create programs, provide services and train staff. And for our profession, it can begin the process of meeting our commitment to the principle of equity in care. From the President Alexander (Sandy)Mutchmor, dmd president@cda-adc.ca Canadian Oral Health Roundtable DefiningOralHealth