WORLD CONGRESS 2015

Tokyo Declaration

At the end of World Congress 2015, the Tokyo Declaration on Dental care and oral health for healthy longevity was adopted to call upon health policy-makers and professionals .

Tokyo Declaration on Dental Care and Oral Health for Healthy Longevity

In many countries around the world societies are ageing rapidly as medical advances and an improved living environment extend the average life span. At the same time, this has generated a marked discrepancy between actual life expectancy and the expectancy of healthy life, resulting in a complex situation in which the number of people needing nursing care has increased. Inevitably societies face as a consequence the task of preventing the decline in the quality of life of people who need nursing care.

The challenge is to develop the role of dental care and oral health in creating societies with healthy longevity. Dental care should respond to the problem of increased noncommunicable diseases as living environments change and should expand its support for people who need nursing care and preventing premature death. Dental associations and other health professionals around the world are encouraged to facilitate and enhance coordination of activities to increase global awareness of and contribute to the implementation of WHO’s Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable diseases 2013-2030.

Life-long oral health is a fundamental human right, underpinned by an ‘oral-health-in-all-policies’ approach.

The World Congress 2015 adopted the Tokyo Declaration on Dental Care and Oral Health for Healthy Longevity, calling for:

1. a concerted effort to accumulate scientific evidence of the contribution of dental care and oral health to longer healthy-life expectancy and to formulate health policies based on such evidence;
2. further investigation into the status of national dental health care policies and regional health activities supported by such evidence, with the sharing of results and related information among countries across the world;
3. recognition that maintenance of oral and dental health throughout life is a fundamental factor for improving quality of life, helping to protect against noncommunicable diseases and contributing towards preventing the aggravation of such diseases - it can also contribute to longer healthy life expectancy;
4. community dental care providers and institutions to play a fundamental role in ensuring that, in ageing societies, appropriate dental care is provided at all stages of life and that concerted efforts to put oral health into practice are made at the national level;
5. an understanding that health policy should focus on how to recognize risks common to both oral diseases and noncommunicable diseases in order to devise a common risk factor approach, prevent oral diseases and tooth loss, and maintain and revitalize oral function by a life-course approach;
6. an appreciation that, in order to contribute to preventing both noncommunicable diseases and a decline in oral function in old age, dental and other health professionals must create an environment that enables and encourages multi-professional collaborative practice.

Tokyo
March 15th, 2015