Who we are
The Youth for Sustainable Oral Health (YSOH) is a movement of young oral health professionals around the world who want to make oral health more sustainable, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Youth are clear that action on climate change and sustainability is needed now, and we aim to ensure that the oral health community is at the forefront of this action.
What is the problem?
We see that the current situation is not good enough. Oral health services consume resources at a massive rate; water, metal, plastic and electricity. As a community, we unnecessarily produce millions of tonnes of plastic waste, and millions more of CO2 emissions. As students, both in undergraduate and beyond, we learn nothing about the impact of our profession on the environment, or about planetary health and climate change, the greatest collective threat humanity has ever faced.
The burden of oral diseases has remained constant for decades with little improvement. 3.5 billion people live with untreated dental disease. Millions live their lives with the intense pain of oral diseases every day, not able to eat, to smile at their children, to talk to their friends. These people can be found in every country in the world, often the poorest and most vulnerable of our communities. They do not have the option of expensive treatment. Does our current education properly prepare us to help solve these challenges, or future ones on the near horizon?
Business as usual is not working. Change is needed, and it is needed now. We, as young oral health professionals, have a unique opportunity through the 2021 WHO Oral Health Resolution to shape the future we want, centred on sustainable, equitable and person centred oral health for all. Now is the time to act, to reform our institutions and our profession at the local, national and global level.
How Can I Help?
Change is required at every level. We therefore call for:
– Students and professionals to act together, advocating and working within their schools and communities to promote oral health equity and climate justice.
– Universities and Educational Institutions to provide comprehensive education on how to reduce waste and energy consumption in students’ future daily practice. In line with the WHO Oral Health Resolution, students should learn to treat patients holistically, considering prevention, the social determinants of health and planetary health. Working with students, they should also make their clinics less wasteful and support quality improvement exercises around sustainability.
– Dental Councils and Regulators to set ambitious standards for oral health professionals’ knowledge and skills, and require continuing professional development on planetary health and (the provision of sustainable oral health services) sustainable clinical practice.
– Chief Dental Officers to drive policy change within government to ensure that climate neutral oral health provision is incentivised and encouraged.
– Professional and Specialist Societies to adopt policies, set guidelines and release recommendations on how their fields can become more sustainable and take account of planetary health.
– Research Funders to increase funding opportunities for oral health research relating to sustainability, and to incentivise widespread knowledge transfer between academia, clinical practice and policy.
– Industry, as a key actor in sustainability, to invest in designing effective, accessible and affordable oral health products that reduce single use packaging and shipping emissions, recognising that waste is a human health and planetary health issue.
If you agree that immediate change is needed, we urge you to sign this manifesto and take action!
YSOH – Manifesto
