Faculty Dentistry of
Global Dental Child Health Taskforce
(GDCHT) &
International Centre for
Child Oral Health
Background
The Global Dental Child Health Taskforce (GDCHT) was established in 2006 and its mission is supported by the World Health Organization.
Its aims are to significantly improve the oral health of children through multisectoral networking by developing Public-Private Partnerships, to coordinate services, national educational programmes and to promote evidence based oral health messages. To achieve these ambitious targets, child oral health will need to be given a higher priority in many countries, one of which is Malaysia.
In March 2009, one of the outcomes presented at the London GDCHT Senior Dental leadership Workshop is to develop a network of national and regional GDCHT Initiatives around the world. Malaysia, the proposer, has agreed to develop a national model in collaboration with GDCHT based at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty of Dentistry. This workshop is in line with the above intention.
Professor Raman Bedi, Chairman of International Child Oral Health, King’s College, London and, Founder and Chairman of GDCHT expressed his intention of coming over to Malaysia to meet the key players and to initiate the Malaysia’s GDCHT Taskforce.
Why Malaysia ?
In March 2009, Professor Dr Rahimah was invited to attend a high level Senior Dental Leader Management Workshop in London.
It was there that she had presented the local scenario which showed that Malaysian young children made up a significant 35% of the country’s total population.
Previous local studies had shown that on the average, between 8 to 10 (50%) primary teeth have been ravaged by caries before they reached the age of six years old. Impact of early extractions due to caries affects the jaw growth hence increasing the prevalence of crowding, malocclusion and periodontal disease as they grow into the teenage years. These in turn will have an impact of how they see themselves, their aesthetic, self esteem and confidence to face their growing world.
Caries has been established to be a multifactoral disease with multidimensional consequences. While the Oral Health Division has made
tremendous efforts to help improve the oral health of the children, they alone cannot be made responsible to look after the whole nation.
It is therefore crucial that Malaysians, not only dentists, in related agencies work together to promote, educate, and develop strategies of change to help reduce caries occurrence among children. This is one of the major tenets included in the Health Promotion Principles.
Aim
This workshop aims to :
• Develop a multisectoral Malaysian -GCDHT Taskforce which will be central to spearheading the drive to improve child oral health in the nation.
• Identify potential collaborative strategies between the different individuals or agencies to achieve the mission of improved oral health among young children in Malaysia.
Programme
08:30 Registration 09:00 Words of Welcome
09:05 The Global Context for Child Oral Health
-Professor Raman Bedi
Chairman of GDCHT
10:00 Caries Among Young Children in Malaysia
-Professor Rahimah Abdul Kadir
GDCHT Member
10:15 Oral Health Agenda for Children and Its Challenges -
YBhg Datin Dr Norain Abu Talib
Principal Director, Oral Health Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia
10:30 Coffee Break
10:45 Workshop – Group work
Facilitators:
Professor Raman Bedi
Professor Rahimah Abdul Kadir
13:15 Lunch
14:30 Outcome Presentation 15:30 Closing
13.00 Welcome Speech - Dean
Faculty of Dentistry, UKM
About the Founder And Chairman of GDCHT
Professor Raman Bedi
BDS, MSc, DDS, DSc, FDSRCS (Edinburgh and England), FGDP, FFPH
Based at King’s College, London, Professor Raman Bedi is a specialist in both dental public health and paediatric dentistry and established the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce in January 2006 after 40 senior dental advisors and chief dental officers demanded its formation. It is supported by both the UK government and WHO.
Prior to this, Professor Bedi spent more than three years as Chief Dental Officer at the Department of Health (England) (2002-2005). During this time, he led a team which managed the implementation of the most significant change pro- gramme to NHS dentistry since the NHS was established in 1948. These reforms are now helping to reduce health inequalities by giving all patients better access to local services as well as a simplified system of dental charges, while also allowing dentists greater stability and more time to devote to preventive work.
Professor Bedi also holds an honorary chair at University College London where he is currently co-director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre (1998-present). During his 30-year career, Professor Bedi has held honorary professorships with a number of overseas universities, examined and lectured in over 40 countries and published over 170 scientific papers and four books including ‘The Root Cause – Oral Health In Developing Countries’ (2000).
He is also a Board member of the Higher Education Leadership Foundation, Member of the Higher Education National mentoring scheme for senior staff and has been a member of the Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE) Strategic Committee for widening participation in Higher Education since 2003.
He is the past President of the British Society for Disability and Oral Health (2002), President of the Education Research Group of the International Associa- tion for Dental Research (IADR) (2002-2004) and Chair of the IADR Regional Development Programme Committee (2002-2004).
Professor Bedi has extensive experience in the voluntary sector, being the trus- tee/council member of several charities. He chaired the Archbishop’s Council (Church of England) Urban and Community Affairs Committee (1996-2001). In recognition of these achievements in 2003 he was given the Asian Guild award and the Asian Jewel award. He is married with 3 children.
Participation
Participation is by invitation. There is no registration fee.
Participants are responsible for their own transport/accommodation.
Committee Members:
Prof. Dr Rahimah Abdul Kadir (Chairman), Assoc. Prof. Dr Tuti Ningseh Md Dom, Dr Alida Mahyuddin, Dr S. Nagarajan, Dr Haslina Rani
Secretariat:
Office of the Deputy Dean
(Postgraduate, Research, International and Industry Relations) Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (60)3-9289 7850 (Nor Fatimah), Fax: (60)3-9289 7794 Email : [email protected]
Other contact persons:
Prof Dr Rahimah Abdul Kadir ([email protected]) Dr Alida Mahyuddin ([email protected])
Dr Haslina Rani ([email protected])
Dean, Faculty of Dentistry, UKM Professor Raman Bedi, GDCHT
Principal Director of Oral Health Division, MOH
Director of Professional Oral Care, Colgate–Palmolive, Greater Asia Division &
Colgate—Palmolive Sdn Bhd (Malaysia) Miss Veronica Monte (King’s College, UK)
