20 October 2021

---

The World Health Organization added three dental preparations to the list of essential medicines

Global recognition of benefits from topical fluoride-containing preparations, glass ionomer cement, silver diamine fluoride hailed as “huge step forward for oral health”

---

The World Health Organization announced Oct. 1 updates to its Model List of Essential Medicines for Adults and Children, three of which – topical fluoride-containing preparations (such as toothpaste), glass ionomer cement, and silver diamine fluoride – are dental treatments featured for the first time.

The updated essential medicines list, which includes 20 new medicines for adults and 17 for children, had never deemed these dental preparations essential until now.

“This marks a major achievement for oral health and public health,” said Jessica Meeske, D.D.S., immediate past chair of the ADA Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention.

“As a practicing pediatric dentist who sees a large number of low-income, high caries-risk patients, I have seen the benefits of fluoride, glass ionomer cement, and silver diamine fluoride, and I am glad that their usefulness is recognized globally as essential.”

Under the leadership of Benoit Varenne, D.D.S., Ph.D., dental officer at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the NYU Dentistry WHO Collaborating Center for Quality-improvement, Evidence-based Dentistry supported the applications for all three dental treatments for submission to the WHO Expert Committee, which included coordinating contributors, gathering evidence and drafting the application dossiers.

Adding them to the list for adults and children is a huge step forward for oral health and the prevention and treatment of dental caries, said Habib Benzian, D.D.S., Ph.D., co-director of the NYU Dentistry WHO Collaborating Center for Quality–Improvement, Evidence-based Dentistry, and research professor at the NYU College of Dentistry.

Source: https://www.ada.org/

Source: https://www.who.int/news/