Oral Health in the Global South

Dear Colleagues,

It is a common saying that health is incomplete without oral health. This is true, as the mouth serves as a mirror of the body’s state of health, and as well the gateway to the body. Dental care professionals and public health/policy specialists play a very crucial role in ensuring the good oral health profile of the general population.

According to a recent report by the World Health Organization, there is an unequal distribution of the dental workforce globally. Based on the report, it was understood that the majority of the dental health workforce are in the Global North, while only very few are in the Global South. For example, only 1% of the total population of dentists are in Africa. Overall, this shows that there is a huge inequality gap in global oral healthcare.

Worisomely, a very recent report by the Global Burden of Disease Study Group revealed that about half of the world population experience diverse oral conditions. This group’s report, coupled with several other reports, further established that the burden of these oral conditions is concentrated in countries in the Global South. This is also another area of inequality that needs to be addressed.

The aim of this Special Issue is to create a collection of papers that address diverse areas of dental public health (community dentistry) with a focus on global health. Submissions regarding, but not limited to, oral epidemiology, oral health policy, oral health education, dental workforce development, dental care professions education, dental health insurance, neglected tropical oral diseases, and dental sociology are highly welcome.

Diverse manuscript types, including comprehensive narrative reviews, systematic reviews, bibliometric analyses, surveys, randomized control trials, commentaries, letters to editors, etc., can be submitted to this Special Issue.

Dr. Zuhair Natto
Dr. Kehinde Kazeem Kanmodi
Dr. Lawrence Achilles Nnyanzi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Oral is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.