By Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu
World Oral Health Day 2025, observed annually on 20 March, is a vital opportunity to raise awareness and prioritize oral health – an essential component of overall well-being that is often overlooked.
Oral diseases such as dental caries, gum disease and tooth loss affected 42% of the WHO African Region’s population in 2021. The region also has the highest number of noma cases, a rapidly progressing, non-contagious gangrenous disease of the mouth that primarily affects young children. If left untreated, noma has a high fatality rate, and survivors often suffer from life-long impairments, disfigurement, stigma and discrimination.
To tackle these challenges, Member States endorsed the Regional Oral Health Strategy 2016–2025, integrating oral disease into noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention and control programmes. Oral diseases share common risk factors – tobacco, alcohol, high sugar intake, and socioeconomic and commercial determinants – with other NCDs such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, making an integrated approach more effective.
At the global level, the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly (WHA74) in 2021 recognized oral health as a core part of the NCD agenda and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This led to the endorsement of the Global Strategy on Oral Health (WHA75) and the Global Oral Health Action Plan 2023–2030 (WHA76), which includes a monitoring framework.
