Addressing Oral Health Inequities, Access to Care, Knowledge, and Behaviors

Abstract

Oral health is essential to overall health (1), and dental publichealth is a field of public health and a specialized field of dentistrythat focuses on improving access to oral health care and understandingthe factors that contribute to improving oral health from apopulation health perspective (2). This collection of articles inPreventing Chronic Disease (PCD), “Oral Health Behaviors andAvailability of Dental Services Among Children and Adults,” features8 articles that discuss contemporary dental public healthchallenges and opportunities. These include inequities in access todental care, disparities in the prevalence of oral disease, risk behaviorsrelated to oral disease, the relationship between oral healthand chronic diseases, and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemicon oral health