World Oral Health Day 2026

Message from WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Mohamed Janabi

On World Oral Health Day 2026, we turn our attention to a silent but widespread health challenge affecting communities across the WHO African Region. Oral diseases are among the most common and preventable health conditions, yet they remain one of the most neglected areas of public health.

Oral diseases, including dental caries, gum disease, tooth loss and the devastating condition noma, affected 42% of our population in 2021. These conditions cause pain, disability and avoidable suffering, while placing sustained pressure on families, communities and health systems.

Recognizing this burden, Member States endorsed the WHO African Regional Framework on Oral Health in 2025. This framework advances implementation of the WHO Global Oral Health Action Plan, and establishes a clear path towards universal oral health coverage by 2030.

Countries are already translating these commitments into action. With financial support from the Borrow Foundation, Ghana, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda have developed national oral health strategies to strengthen prevention and service delivery. Ethiopia, with support from Hilfsaktion Noma e.V., has trained more than 850 primary care and community health workers across 10 regions to improve the early detection of noma, also integrating noma surveillance into mass drug administration campaigns that have reached over 2.6 million people nationwide.

To strengthen national training capacity and build a sustainable oral health workforce, Malawi has established its inaugural Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme, constructed a new dental school, and graduated its first locally-trained dentists.

In Tanzania, workforce expansion and national deployment are supporting earlier care and improving long-term health outcomes. A total of 594 dental therapists have been trained, dentists have been deployed to all 184 district councils, and the proportion of health facilities providing restorative treatments increased from 25% to 45% between 2023 and 2025.

WHO Collaborating Centres, including the Japan Institute for Health Security and Niigata University, have further supported countries including Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia to strengthen primary care level oral health services, through workforce training and expanded delivery of essential interventions.

However, major gaps persist. Only 17% of people in our region currently have access to essential oral health services. Workforce shortages, chronic underinvestment and insufficient prevention measures, including high sugar consumption and inadequate fluoride exposure, continue to drive preventable oral diseases, especially in undeserved areas.

WHO is also supporting countries to transition towards environmentally sustainable and less invasive oral health care, including the phase-out of mercury-containing dental amalgam in line with the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Through evidence-based guidance, technical support and new evidence-based approaches, including the recently issued WHO guideline on environmentally-friendly and less invasive oral health, WHO is helping expand prevention, strengthen service delivery and integrate essential oral health interventions at the primary care level.

Improving oral health is fundamental to universal health coverage. In addition to reducing preventable illness, it also lowers long-term costs and improves well-being across the life course.

On this World Oral Health Day, I call on governments, partners, academia and civil society to unite to accelerate implementation of national oral health strategies, strengthen workforce capacity and expand access to essential services.

WHO remains committed to supporting Member States in integrating oral health into national health systems, and advancing equitable access to care.

With sustained commitment and investment, the African Region can reduce the burden of oral diseases, and ensure that future generations grow, learn and live free from preventable oral diseases.

Learn more:

• Oral Health
• Regional framework for accelerating implementation of the Global oral health action plan: addressing oral diseases as part of noncommunicable diseases towards universal health coverage and health for all by 2030
• WHO guideline on environmentally friendly and less invasive oral health care for preventing and managing dental caries
• Tanzania strengthens oral health services through strategic partnership with WHO and WHO Collaborating Centres in Japan

• Africa faces critical shortage of oral health workers amid rising disease burden