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Oral Health is an integral part of general health. With increasing life expectancy (64.6 years) of the Indian population, oral health is bound to play a major role in improving the quality of life. In developing countries, the trend indicates an increase in oral health problems especially dental caries, gum diseases (periodontitis), malocclusion and oral cancer. In western countries, incidence of dental diseases has been brought down markedly by oral health education, modification of diet and use of fluorides. In India, dental problems are consistently increasing both in prevalence and severity over last five decades. This can be attributed to shift in diet pattern towards more refined food (fast food) and poor oral hygiene. Oral cancer constitutes 35 - 40 % of total body cancers due to wide usage of betel nuts, quid, pan masala etc. Majority of the population in the country lack knowledge about dental diseases and the relation of dental problems to general health.
Though the country is producing 6,000
to 8052 dentists per annum at present, yet distribution of dentists to the population requirement is grossly uneven. The rural areas are deprived of dental services in almost whole of the country. Overall, dental and oral health care in India is not in optimal condition. Another problem is that we do not have an organized data recording system reflecting the exact magnitude of
oro-dental problems. This is a major hindrance to oral health care planning. Although these diseases may not be life threatening yet their treatment modalities are highly expansive. In addition, they can be easily prevented and controlled to a large extent by public education and motivation.
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Public health preventive programmes need a significant amount of resources, manpower and finances. India being a country with limited resources and having no specific oral health budget, requires an approach which is feasible in existing resources of infrastructure, manpower and finances.
In order to curtail the above problems, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare accepted in principle National Oral Health Policy in the year 1995 to be included in National Health Policy. The present National Oral Health Care Programme is an effort towards achieving the goals put forward in the National Oral Health Policy. The Director General Health Services and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has identified 5 states for its implementation as a pilot project. Under this project 2 National and 4 Regional workshops have been organized in collaboration with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in different regions of the country to sensitize oral health professionals and to formulate implementation strategies. The Implementation strategies have been formulated and are ready in the form of a book.
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