No health without oral health: This is a regional priority

It may surprise you, but oral diseases are the most common noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the WHO Western Pacific Region, affecting 960 million people across 38 countries and areas. Despite this enormous burden, oral health has long been neglected in the regional and global health agendas.

Yet most oral diseases – from caries to various types of cancer – are preventable. Sadly, far too many people still lack access to essential oral health care to prevent, detect, and treat these conditions early. Without integration of essential oral health services into primary health care and universal health coverage, this neglect will continue to fuel inequities. Furthermore, the economic burden from oral diseases in our Region is currently estimated at US$ 192 billion, placing a substantial and damaging financial impact on families and communities.

A first‑ever regional plan for oral health

In recent years, however, our Region has taken a bold step forward. In 2025, our WHO Regional Committee Meeting – an annual gathering of all our Member States – adopted the first-ever Western Pacific Regional Implementation Plan for the Global Strategy and Action Plan on Oral Health, together with a dedicated Resolution on Oral Health.

The regional blueprint. It calls for stronger workforce capacity, service delivery closer to communities, supportive healthy environments, prevention efforts aligned with broader NCD strategies (given the link between oral diseases and a number of noncommunicable diseases such as sugars- and tobacco-related illnesses), and stronger policy and governance.

The direction is clear: our challenge now is to move from policy to practice.

Everyone has a role to play

Everyone has a role to play in improving oral health.

First and foremost, government leadership is essential. Countries need to prioritize oral health in national health agendas, allocate sufficient resources, and integrate essential oral health services into primary health care and universal health coverage.

This includes elevating the role of dentists and other oral health professionals on par with other branches of medicine. For far too long, oral health professionals have played second fiddle in the hierarchies that we often see in medical practice. This must end.

Upstream action is also critical. For example, reducing sugar consumption, one of the leading contributors to dental caries, requires strong policy measures such as taxation, marketing restrictions, and healthier food environments. Another essential step is curbing the use of all forms of tobacco and areca nut products linked to oral cancers.

These policy decisions, combined with community‑level prevention and management – including educating children early about the essentials of oral health – are key to addressing the avoidable burden of oral diseases across the Western Pacific.

We need to maintain this momentum and ensure that this does not remain a one‑time legacy discussion from our Regional Committee Meeting.

Now is the time to translate dialogue into tangible, sustained action. By working together across government, professional bodies and communities, we can build a future where good oral health is not a privilege, but a reality for all.