FDI Vision 2020: a blueprint for the profession

Oral health is an essential component of good health and good oral health is a fundamental human right; the role of FDI World Dental Federation and the dental profession is to help the public and decision makers achieve health through good oral health. This is why FDI and its member associations must be in the forefront on issues related to oral health, to identify challenges and opportunities and to carry out advocacy for the benefit of our patients, our profession and our governments. The dental profession needs an overarching longterm vision of how it can grow in order to make a significant contribution during the next decade and the FDI therefore launched a series of reflections. The result is Vision 2020 1 , a document to drive the future priorities of the FDI in accordance with its mission of Leading the World to Optimal Health. Vision 2020 identifies today’s main challenges and opportunities for oral health, with a specific focus on issues with a legislative, regulatory or advocacy dimension. Among them we can enumerate: persisting oral health inequalities; lack of access to oral healthcare; unaffordability of dental treatment in many places; a growing and ageing population; workforce migration; dental tourism; the emergence of new educational models; the evolving distribution of tasks between members of the oral healthcare workforce; ongoing legislative actions targeting hazardous materials; and the increasing use of information and communication technologies in all segments of our lives and professions. They can be viewed as either overwhelming threats to our profession or unique opportunities to reshape it to better equip our workforce for the future, reasserting the principle that fully trained dentists, as leaders of the dental team, retain full responsibility for diagnosis, treatment planning and treatment. In Vision 2020 the FDI puts forward for the very first time a five-point blueprint delineating the challenges facing oral health and oral health care, which are to: 1 Meet the increasing need and demand for oral healthcare 2 Expand the role of existing oral healthcare professionals 3 Shape a responsive educational model 4 Mitigate the impacts of socio-economic dynamics 5 Foster fundamental and translational research and technology. These five areas are set to shape a new model of oral healthcare that seeks to be inclusive, participative, adaptive and effective. The focus is on oral health promotion and oral disease prevention, reflecting trends observed in other areas of healthcare and priorities set by international agencies. It is now up to members of the dental profession to respond with constructive solutions and seize this unique opportunity to become true leaders and role models in the field of oral health. FDI Vision 2020 is not meant to be operational: it provides avenues which will need to be further explored and discussed. Intentionally, it does not provide any specific strategies, tactical approaches, implementation tools or ready-to-use formulae; those will have to be developed based on local needs and circumstances in the spirit of the United Nations Development Programme’s report: ‘Think globally, act locally’. Vision 2020 is the beginning of a continuous process aimed at generating discussion and collaboration between the FDI and all its partners. In the coming months the FDI will, in close collaboration with its member associations, corporate partners and other stakeholders, be drawing inspiration from this groundbreaking document to develop an overarching framework for fulfilling our mission of Leading the World to Optimal Health.