Oral Health, General Health and Quality of Life

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The compartmentalization involved in viewing the mouth separately from the rest of the body must cease because oral health affects general health by causing considerable pain and suffering and by changing what people eat, their speech and their quality of life and well-being. Oral health also has an effect on other chronic diseases (1). Because of the failure to tackle social and material determinants and incorporate oral health into general health promotion, millions suffer intractable toothache and poor quality of life and end up with few teeth.

Health policies should be reoriented to incorporate oral health using sociodental approaches to assessing needs and the common risk factor approach for health promotion (1, 2). Oral diseases are the most common of the chronic diseases and are important public health problems because of their prevalence, their impact on individuals and society, and the expense of their …