Basic oral health goals for Spain 2015/2020

Abstract

Aim/objective: To define the basic oral health goals for Spain 2015 (children)/2020 (adults).

Methods: The Spanish Society of Epidemiology and Oral Public Health commissioned a six-member Expert Panel, which worked over the period 2006-2007 and reached consensus according to the EuropeAid Evaluation Guidelines. The Panel's work included three meetings and a presentation at the Society's annual conference in 2007. Since each autonomous region/city in Spain has control over its health policy, only basic goals for the country as a whole were defined. The variables used to set goals were caries history and gingival health according to the World Health Organisation criteria, and tooth brushing frequency and health perception according to the European Global Oral Health Indicators Development Project.

Results and conclusions: A total of 16 targets were defined, 8 for children and 8 for adults. For example, the number of permanent decayed, missing and filled teeth should be < 1.0 at 12 years of age by 2015, or the percentage of edentulous persons should be < 15% at 65-74-years by 2020. In order to achieve the proposed goals, the Expert Panel recommends involving all health system personnel in the maintenance and/or development of new oral health programmes and strategies.