As Federal Efforts are Underway to Improve Access to Oral Health Care, Let’s Work Together to Get it Right In Canada, an estimated 2.26 million school days are missed each year due to dental-related illness, and tooth decay accounts for onethird of all day surgeries performed on young children. Only 47% of adults between age 60 and 79 have dental benefits. In fact, one-third of Canadians are unable to visit an oral health professional because they do not have access to dental benefits. This makes access to dental care critical for these families. The following article by Dr. Heather Carr, CDA president, was distributed to media outlets in September 2023. The oral health landscape across Canada is incredibly complex and varied, with each part of the country starting at a different place when it comes to public oral health programs and resources. Any path forward must take these different realities into account, in addition to the six comprehensive recommendations outlined by CDA in its policy paper Bridging the Financial Gap in Dental Care (see: bit.ly/3EZV6gD). In that paper, CDA recommends that in tandem with investment in access to care, the federal government should develop a comprehensive federal oral health strategy to address the broader set of challenges Canadians are facing. 13 Issue 5 | 2023 |
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