Relationships between Oral Health and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Scoping Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

With interest I’ve read the paper “Relationships between Oral Health and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Scoping Review ”. The authors reviewed the research that linked oral health and the sustainable development goals and concluded, that there is a lack of publications addressing the connection between the SDGs and oral health. The paper is of interest to a range of readers among dental professionals in the field of public heath. Few minor comments should be addressed.

 

Abstract:

It is better to explain, what  “SDG3” means

 

Introduction

The section is well-written and includes all the necessary references.

 

Methods

The methods are appropriate for that type of research and thoroughly described.

 

Results

Figure 1 - there is some problem with the text in some frames - it is not completely visible.

 

Discussion

The section is clear, concise, and relevant.

Author Response

we than the review for the constructive feedback

We authors repeated the review and identified 7 additional manuscripts. We highlighted the SDG links and explained what each SDG were in the results. We wrote: 

The reference to SDG 1 (no poverty) aimed to teach dental students how to provide non-discriminatory free dental treatment. SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) focused on various aspects, such as enhancing patient access to oral health education for improved overall health and well-being [21, 29]. It also involved integrating oral health into general healthcare through universal health coverage [19, 26, 28], creating global health-focused educational curricula [27], developing appropriate policies [19, 23], utilizing digital tools [30], addressing health inequalities linked to oral and craniofacial conditions [20], and establishing sustainable oral healthcare approaches for managing early childhood caries [22]. The reference to SDG 4 (quality education) concerned involving dental students in their early years of dental education in the design and implementation of research [29], with considerations for reducing and promoting gender equality in healthcare access, as referenced in SDG 5 (gender inequality) [28, 29]. Additionally, one study explored ways to reduce carbon emissions in dentistry practice, aligning with the objectives of SDG 13 (climate change) [25]. One of the studies highlighted a connection between oral health and the SDG in its background but no link was made with any of the SDGs in the write-up [24].

 

We have also improved on the Figure 1 to improve the clarity of the content

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This work presents a scoping review that brings out the relationship between the oral health and the sustainable development goals. However, the following points have to be improved for enhancing the quality of this review manuscript:

1. Abstract: It is recommended to improve the presentation of the abstract. 

Lines 16, 21, 23, 25,  26: Minimize the usage of the acronyms in the abstract.

Lines 17 and 18 - Please check the punctuations in these lines. E.g.  A comma should be included after the term "Web of Science".

Line 21: Clearly define SDG3 before its usage. 

Lines 25 and 27: Please correct the English grammar errors and typos. E.g.  In the line 25 - The word "To" appears before the word "It". 

2. Introduction:

Present the major contributions of this work as bullet points (at least three) at the end of the introduction.

Lines 92-93: Please correct the English grammar errors and typos.

3. Materials and Methods: The year range used for the paper selection process is mentioned in the abstract. Also, include these details in this section. 

Line 97: Avoid using personal pronouns throughout the manuscript.

Line 102 and Line 103: The authors mention the following statement " The following questions guided this review was: What is the published evidence specifically linking oral health and the SDG?"; however, only one question is mentioned here.

Lines 105 - 106: The authors mention the following statement " The initial search was conducted on five electronic databases in June 2023 namely 105 Scopus, CINAHL, Web of Science, Medline (Pubmed)"; however, only four electronic databases are mentioned here. 

Lines 117 - 118: Please correct the English grammar errors and typos

4. Results: 

Line 128: The authors mention the following statement "The initial search using the predefined search terms from five databases yielded 446  studies after duplicates were removed"; however, only four electronic databases are mentioned in this manuscript.

Lines 132-169: Please redraw the figure 1, as some content is missing in the identification stage and ensure that the text within the boxes are clearly visible. 

Lines 132 -169: Generally, the PRISMA-ScR has four stages: identification, screening, eligibility and included; however in this diagram the "eligibility" part is missing.

Lines 132 - 169: The authors have included only five articles in their scoping review. However, the following sample articles related to oral health and SDGs were found from the databases mentioned by the authors:

a). SCOPUS database:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300571222003992

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300571219300922

 

b). PubMed Database: 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36330110/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8445805/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652557/

It is recommended to include more articles related to oral health and SDGs  (from the databases mentioned by the authors) in this review. 

Line 225: Include more relevant articles related to oral health and SDGs .

5. Discussion: Since only 5 articles were included in the scoping review. Improve the discussion section after including more relevant articles related to oral health and SDGs. 

6: Conclusions: 

Lines 295 - 296: Consider rewriting this part, as more relevant articles related to oral health and SDGs could be found from the existing literature.

Please improve the conclusions: 

In the Conclusion, clearly mention how your study advances the knowledge in the field and rewrite it to consider the following comments:

     (a) Highlight your analysis and reflect only the important points of the whole paper.

     (b) Mention the benefits of this work.

     (c) Mention the implication in the last part of this section.

 

7.  In this scoping review, the authors had included only five articles that maps oral health with Sustainable Development Goals. 

However, there are many articles related to this topic ( mapping oral health with sustainable Development Goals) available in the existing literature (PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and CINAHL databases used by the authors). I was able to obtain more articles closely related to this topic from the above mentioned databases, after using the search string mentioned by the authors.   

Moreover, I had mentioned only five sample articles related to this topic (mapping oral health with sustainable Development Goals) and there are many more. Please note that these five articles are not recommended references and it is not mandatory for the authors to include these five references. But, I just wanted to point out that the number of articles used for this scoping review is not adequate.  

The article exclusion criteria mentioned by the authors is not clear.  

Ref. [6] and Ref. [21] are the same.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Moderate editing of English language required

Author Response

This work presents a scoping review that brings out the relationship between the oral health and the sustainable development goals. However, the following points have to be improved for enhancing the quality of this review manuscript:

• Response: We have worked on the entire document to improve this after repeating the review. We hope the reviewer will find the new version acceptable

1. Abstract: It is recommended to improve the presentation of the abstract. 

• Response: We have worked to improve this.

Lines 16, 21, 23, 25,  26: Minimize the usage of the acronyms in the abstract.

• Response: Thanks for raising this point. We have limited the acronyms to only SDG

Lines 17 and 18 - Please check the punctuations in these lines. E.g.  A comma should be included after the term "Web of Science".

• Response: Suggested edit effected

Line 21: Clearly define SDG3 before its usage. 

• Response: The meaning of the SDG was defined in the second line of the abstract.

Lines 25 and 27: Please correct the English grammar errors and typos. E.g.  In the line 25 - The word "To" appears before the word "It". 

• Response: this has been corrected through the extensive edit of the manuscript

2. Introduction:

Present the major contributions of this work as bullet points (at least three) at the end of the introduction.

• Response: Thanks for the suggestions. Since the journal did not require this as a manuscript format, we have not gone ahead to present the study highlights as bullet points.

Lines 92-93: Please correct the English grammar errors and typos.

• Response: Thanks for highlighting this. We have worked on the entire paragraph and made edits. We wrote: Although the SDGs acknowledge the interconnectedness of the SDG goals enhances the utilization of the global financial resources efficiently and effectively [14, 15], there has been limited discussions on the interconnectedness and the management of oral health resources within the framework of the SDGs. The International Dental Federation acknowledges the significance of the SDGs and, in its public statement, emphasizes the need for the dental profession to incorporate sustainable development goals into daily practice. They also advocate for the transition of dental practice to a green economy to promote healthy lives and well-being for people at all stages of life [16]. Research based evidence are, therefore, needed to understand the connectedness of oral health and the SDGs, as this will facilitate the development of an investment case for global oral health programming. Investment in oral health can be economically rewarding [17]. The aim of this scoping review, therefore, was to map the research on the links between oral health and the goals of the 17 SDGs; and to make recommendations for future studies to address gaps in the links between oral health and the SDG targets.

 

3. Materials and Methods: The year range used for the paper selection process is mentioned in the abstract. Also, include these details in this section. 

• Suggested edit effected. We wrote: The search period was between 2015 and June 2023 and was conducted in English. The search started in 2015 which was the period when the SDGs were declared.

Line 97: Avoid using personal pronouns throughout the manuscript.

• Thanks for raising this. We have made efforts to eliminate all but one use of personal pronouns throughout the manuscript

Line 102 and Line 103: The authors mention the following statement " The following questions guided this review was: What is the published evidence specifically linking oral health and the SDG?"; however, only one question is mentioned here.

• Thanks for identifying this. We have revised the sentence to read: The following question guided this review: What is the published evidence specifically linking oral health and the SDG?

Lines 105 - 106: The authors mention the following statement " The initial search was conducted on five electronic databases in June 2023 namely 105 Scopus, CINAHL, Web of Science, Medline (Pubmed)"; however, only four electronic databases are mentioned here. 

• Response: Thanks for raising this. We have corrected the number of databases to four.

Lines 117 – 118: Please correct the English grammar errors and typos

• Response: This has been worked on and revised.

4. Results: 

Line 128: The authors mention the following statement "The initial search using the predefined search terms from five databases yielded 446  studies after duplicates were removed"; however, only four electronic databases are mentioned in this manuscript.

• Thanks for picking this. The section had been completely re-written.

Lines 132-169: Please redraw the figure 1, as some content is missing in the identification stage and ensure that the text within the boxes are clearly visible. 

• Response: Thanks for raising this. We have improved on the drawing

Lines 132 -169: Generally, the PRISMA-ScR has four stages: identification, screening, eligibility and included; however in this diagram the "eligibility" part is missing.

• Response: Thanks for raising this. We have edited appropriately

Lines 132 - 169: The authors have included only five articles in their scoping review. However, the following sample articles related to oral health and SDGs were found from the databases mentioned by the authors:

a). SCOPUS database:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300571222003992

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300571219300922

 

b). PubMed Database: 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36330110/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8445805/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652557/

It is recommended to include more articles related to oral health and SDGs  (from the databases mentioned by the authors) in this review. 

• Response: Thanks for raising this We repeated the entire review process based on this comments. We found seven additional manuscript. Some the references noted here were not included as they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Many of these were opinion pieces and some did not specifically mention the SDG. Thanks a million for the guidance.

Line 225: Include more relevant articles related to oral health and SDGs .

• Response: We included 7 more articles that met the inclusion criteria

5. Discussion: Since only 5 articles were included in the scoping review. Improve the discussion section after including more relevant articles related to oral health and SDGs. 

• Thanks for the observation. We have improved on the discussion extensively. We hope this meets the requirement of the reviewer

6: Conclusions: 

Lines 295 - 296: Consider rewriting this part, as more relevant articles related to oral health and SDGs could be found from the existing literature.

• Response: This has been improved on. Thanks for the suggestion

Please improve the conclusions: In the Conclusion, clearly mention how your study advances the knowledge in the field and rewrite it to consider the following comments:

     (a) Highlight your analysis and reflect only the important points of the whole paper.

     (b) Mention the benefits of this work.

     (c) Mention the implication in the last part of this section.

• Response: Thanks for this excellent guideline. We wrote: This scoping review highlights that there are only a few publications explicitly addressing the connections between and oral health and the SDGs. The few articles focus mainly on the SDG3. The few that make connections between oral health and SDG 1, 4, 5 and 13 emphasize on promoting access to free oral health care to address poverty, promoting oral health education to improve general health, equality in access to oral health and reducing carbon emission through dental practice. Moreover, there was limited information regarding country-level links between oral health and the SDGs, with only one oral health professional body acknowledging its role in the context of SDG3. To address this gap, it is essential to take proactive steps in generating research-based evidence that explores the interplay between oral diseases, oral health, and the broader 17 SDGs. By doing so, we can enhance the commitment of resources towards effectively controlling this substantial public health challenge.

7. In this scoping review, the authors had included only five articles that maps oral health with Sustainable Development Goals. However, there are many articles related to this topic ( mapping oral health with sustainable Development Goals) available in the existing literature (PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and CINAHL databases used by the authors). I was able to obtain more articles closely related to this topic from the above mentioned databases, after using the search string mentioned by the authors.   Moreover, I had mentioned only five sample articles related to this topic (mapping oral health with sustainable Development Goals) and there are many more. Please note that these five articles are not recommended references and it is not mandatory for the authors to include these five references. But, I just wanted to point out that the number of articles used for this scoping review is not adequate.  

• We have gone back to do a search because of the prompting and we found seven additional manuscript that met the inclusion criteria. We collectively read the manuscript to ensure we did not miss any article that should meet the inclusion criteria. Thanks for the prompting.

The article exclusion criteria mentioned by the authors is not clear.  

• We have highlighted this better and wrote: Articles whose full lengths cannot be accessed, narrative reviews that did not focus on oral health and the SDGs, publications in books and grey literatures and systematic reviews were excluded.

Ref. [6] and Ref. [21] are the same.   

• Thanks for picking this. We have substituted an appropriate reference for reference 6. Wang TT, Mathur MR, Schmidt H. Universal health coverage, oral health, equity and personal responsibility. Bull World Health Organ. 2020 Oct 1;98(10):719-721. doi: 10.2471/BLT.19.247288.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A scoping review was organised to map the research that linked oral health and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and respond to the question: what is the published evidence specifically linking oral health and the SDGs?

The study searched for articles published in English between 2015 and June 2023 in PubMed, Web of Science CINAHL and Scopus. Five publications met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized. All the studies addressed SDG3. The study concluded that there were very few publications addressing the connection between the SDGs and oral health and about the need generate additional research-based evidence that explores the links between oral health and SDGs.

Overall, the manuscript is too descriptive. As such, it adds little to what is already known on the topic.  The inclusion of an English language search criteria limits the scope of the review and the validity of the conclusions.  The manuscript highlights its limitations, but that, by itself does not fix them or advance our current knowledge on the issue.

Author Response

A scoping review was organised to map the research that linked oral health and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and respond to the question: what is the published evidence specifically linking oral health and the SDGs? The study searched for articles published in English between 2015 and June 2023 in PubMed, Web of Science CINAHL and Scopus. Five publications met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized. All the studies addressed SDG3. The study concluded that there were very few publications addressing the connection between the SDGs and oral health and about the need generate additional research-based evidence that explores the links between oral health and SDGs. Overall, the manuscript is too descriptive. As such, it adds little to what is already known on the topic.  The inclusion of an English language search criteria limits the scope of the review and the validity of the conclusions.  The manuscript highlights its limitations, but that, by itself does not fix them or advance our current knowledge on the issue.

RESPONSE: Thanks for taking time to review the manuscript We have redone the analysis, improved on the writing and included qualitative analysis. We now have 12 references and have done a lot more extensive analysis of the findings, re-written the results completely and improved on the discussion. We hope the reviewer will find this version more suitable. 

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an interesting manuscript for the relationships between oral health and the sustainable development.

However, line 107: No protocol was published for this review, this would miss some article in this research field.

For example, Challenge and action of improving oral health inequities in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. J Formos Med Assoc 2022;121:1024-6. SDG3 as well as SDG4 were related to oral health inequities.

The detailed criteria of inclusion and exclusion need to be clarified.

The potential limitations should be added in the discussion.  

Overall, this manuscript is not well-prepared and is not assigned a high enough priority to accept for publication in BioMed.

Author Response

This is an interesting manuscript for the relationships between oral health and the sustainable development.

• Response: Thanks for the constructive feedback

However, line 107: No protocol was published for this review, this would miss some article in this research field.

• Response: Thanks for the comments. Scoping reviews do not need a published protocol. We however, used the PRISMA checklist to support the development of the review in line with best practices.

For example, Challenge and action of improving oral health inequities in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. J Formos Med Assoc 2022;121:1024-6. SDG3 as well as SDG4 were related to oral health inequities.

• Response: Thanks for raising this. This is reference 24 in the revised scoping review

The detailed criteria of inclusion and exclusion need to be clarified.

• Response: thanks for raising this. We have made this clearer. We wrote: Any published manuscript presenting oral health findings and directly linking their findings with identified SDGs was considered. Inclusion criteria required that the publications be in English and have full texts available for extracting all relevant information. The review included letters, reviews, observational studies, and experimental studies. Articles with participants outside Nigeria were excluded. Articles whose full lengths cannot be accessed, narrative reviews that did not focus on oral health and the SDGs, publications in books and grey literatures and systematic reviews were excluded.

The potential limitations should be added in the discussion.  

• Response: Thanks for raising this. We had written: One limitation of this study is that we only considered publications written in English. Additionally, we may have missed relevant studies that could have provided evidence linking oral health to the SDGs but did not explicitly identify this connection in their research. This highlights the possibility that valuable evidence linking oral health and the SDGs could be overlooked by researchers while searching through databases. To address this issue, oral health researchers should enhance their ability to align their research findings with the SDGs, recognizing and addressing potential risks and opportunities related to social, environmental, and economic aspects. By doing so, they can contribute meaningfully to the global agenda and create value for their research.

 

Overall, this manuscript is not well-prepared and is not assigned a high enough priority to accept for publication in BioMed.

• Response: we have extensively revised the manuscript. We hope the reviewer will find this version improved.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The majority of the suggestions and comments have been addressed successfully. Please proofread the manuscript for correcting the minor typos. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor English language editing is required 

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have addressed well the reviewers' queries.