Oral Health Action Network News
MORE THAN GOOD INTENTIONS
Unless community health programs, including oral health initiatives, are owned by the local people and the relevant government, sustainability is not guaranteed. Without perpetual support, even a well-organized, well-managed, and targeted program will fail to produce any long-term benefits. Good intentions, unfortunately, are not enough. Hence, the Oral Health Action... More
THE GLOBAL-LOCAL TENSION
In June 2023, the Cambodia National Action Plan for Oral Health was signed off by the Minister of Health, Cambodia. The approach that the team at the Oral Heatlh Bureau (Cambodia) took was to actively reach out to stakeholders at all levels using a “networking approach” as a way to generate support for implementation. More
THE CIRCULAR NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT
Over the last 30 or more years, there have been repeated calls to establish a minimum package of primary oral health care services in low-resource settings. In the late 80s, there was a call for a “primary health care” approach for addressing access to oral health care, and by the mid 90s, there was a growing body of evidence... More
THE ORIGINAL STORY
In 2020, Dr Sanjay Matthew and his team at MulakTimor, a local non-governmental organization (NGO), were attempting to get permission to develop a training template for government employees to start placing silver diammine fluoride (SDF). The Oral Health Bureau (Ministry of Health, Timor Leste) agreed on the condition that the NGO would write a set of standard treatment guidelines for the delivery of... More