Engaging the Caribbean Region for Oral Health

A summit to share knowledge and strengthen partnerships in the
Caribbean Region
Summary Report
The Caribbean Oral Health Initiative (COHI) and Colgate
-
Palmo
live
convened the summit “Engaging the Caribbean Region for Oral Health”,
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on November 13th and 14th. The event
followed conversations between Colgate and key oral health leaders to
advance a collaborative approach to improve oral
health across the
Caribbean Region. Delegates from Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago,
Guyana, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Barbados, and Granada
participated in representation of government agencies, the academia
and professional groups. Attendance was a succ
ess. Forty five people
were invited to the summit; a total of forty two participated. This
represents 98% of invitees.
Dr. Augusto Elías, Chairman of the COHI started off the event with a
message of unity and an account of the oral and general healt
h needs in
the islands.
“With a common history of slavery, plantations and colonialism, we are over
30 million strong. We are Amerindian, African, Spanish, French, English,
Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Asian, American, and Middle Eastern, and we have
over
500 years of experience learning to live together as Antilleans, to unify in
our diversity. We have dealt with the dilemma of difference, with the legacy of
separate and broken identities.”
“Our priorities are no longer curative. There is a great need
for social justice as
a core value in order to increase the focus on health inequalities in the region.
We now come together as Caribbean countries in an attempt to help ourselves
and each other through synergistic partnering to improve health in the regio
n.
Life and its quality depend upon it.”
Dr. Rahul Naidu, Senior Lecturer in Community Dentistry and
Coordinator of the Child Dental Health Unit at The University of the West
Indies, was the keynote speaker that provided the context for this
ambitiou
s event. Many of the challenges presented by Naidu and
colleges Balkaran and Harracksingh, in their paper Oral health
inequalities in the Caribbean, were brought up
-
front by the country
delegates in comprehensive reports of the status of oral health in the
ir
countries, as determined by their oral health workforce, government
policies and surveillance system, as well as their research capacities.
Reports were delivered by: Dr. Fanney V. Thompson
-
Senior Dental
Officer, Ministry of Health (Barbados), Dr.
José Manuel Saldaña
–
Vice
-
Minister at the Oral Health Department/Public Health Ministry
(Dominican Republic), Dr. Shameer Ali
-
Principal Dental Officer,
Ministr
y of Health (Guyana), Dr. Irwing
Mackenzie
-
Chief Dental Officer,
Ministry of Health (Jamaica)
, Dr. Visha Ramroop
-
Lecturer Community
Dentistry/Unit of Child Dental Health (Trinidad and Tobago) and Dr.
Ramón González
–
Professor, University of Puerto Rico School of
Dental Medicine (Puerto Rico).
These are the preliminary findings in line with Na
idu’s paper:

O
ral health in the Caribbean region has largely been a low priority
for regional Governments

P
ublic dental services provide most of the care with private
practice
treatments being difficult to access for the most
disadvantaged groups

Young chi
ldren (preschool /primary school
-
age), are most at risk
for dental caries (tooth decay)

O
ral health inequalities can only be reduced in the long term by
the use of effective and appropriate oral health promotion policy
that addresses underlying causes of
oral disease

G
ood quality data regarding social and economic conditions are
not extensive; a research agenda is a priority in order to move
forward
A pertinent presentation was made by Dr. Mark S. Wolff, Professor and
Chair of the Department of Cario
logy and Comprehensive Care and
Associate Dean for Pre
-
doctoral Clinical Education at the New York
University College of Dentistry to disclose the outcomes of a study made
with Colgate
-
Palmolive in Granada. This research was aimed at
reducing the incidence
of caries in schoolchildren and will be translated
into effective oral health care interventions.
The enthusiasm of the summit opening continued into the breakout
sessions the following day. Participants divided into small groups to
discuss themes of int
erest: Policy Options for Effective Actions,
Strategies for an Effective Oral Health Workforce, Disease Prevention
and Oral Health Promotion and An Oral Health Research Agenda for the
Caribbean. They acknowledged common challenges and then
established pri
orities, successful practices, and opportunities for
networking and research collaborations. The majority of the participants
stated in the summit evaluation form that the breakout sessions
exceeded their expectations.
As a result of this initial encounte
r, collaborative projects are being
discussed among country delegates. Resources to promote oral health
have been identified for prevention, health promotion, and health care.
Details of these and other challenges addressed and recommendations
will be pub
lished in an upcoming report.

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