June 2016

Editorial Prevention of dental caries through the use of fluoride – the WHO approach Poul Erik Petersen and Hiroshi Ogawa Dental caries continues to pose an important public health problem across the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that the disease affects about 60–90% of schoolchildren, the vast majority of adults and that dental caries contributes to an extensive loss of natural teeth in older people globally (Petersen, 2008a; WHO, 2016). Meanwhile, in most westernized high income countries, an improvement in dental health has taken place over the past three decades in parallel with the introduction of prevention-oriented oral health systems. A decline in the prevalence and the severity of dental caries is particularly observed in countries having established public health programmes using fluoride for dental caries prevention, coupled with changing living conditions, healthier lifestyles, and improved self-care practices. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia dental caries levels are high and with health systems in transition the exposure of the population to fluoride for disease prevention has diminished dramatically.