Global Oral Health Summit 2025 - The Internation Federation of Dental Hygienists

The 2025 IFDH Global Oral Health Summit

One World, One Smile:
Elevating Oral Health - By All, For All

Virtual, Saturday, November 8, 2025

The IFDH 2025 Global Oral Health Summit (GOHS) series brings together influential worldwide leaders and stakeholders to discuss how dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral therapists, and oral health therapists can reduce the burden of oral diseases and their global economic impact. As part of the larger healthcare community, these team members play crucial roles in promoting overall well-being.

The WHO has taken a bold and decisive step to bring oral health to the forefront. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, has succinctly stated, “There is no health without oral health.”

The 2025 GOHS emphasizes that point by focusing on topics that put into perspective the importance of oral health, including:

Reducing Inequities
Patient-centered Care
Interprofessional Collaboration
Focus on Prevention, and
The Future of the Oral Healthcare Workforce

This 4 1/2 hour virtual program provides an overview of the recent WHO Oral Health Meeting in Bangkok. It will be followed by renowned speakers who will emphasize ways to improve oral health for all.

This 5th Global Oral Health Summit will continue the excellent content and calls to action presented in our previous events in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024!

CHAIR

Gitana Rederiene, RDH, MSc, PhD
Member, IFDH House of Delegates
President, European Dental Hygienists Federation

REGISTRATION

Free!

Click to Register Online
OR
Click here for Fax

PRESENTATIONS

SCHEDULE: Click here

Takeaways from the World Health Organization (WHO) 2024 Global Oral Health Meeting, Bangkok, Thailand

Recap: WHO 2024 Global Oral Health Meeting

Benoit Varenne, DDS, MPH, PhD
Dental Officer, Dept. of Noncommunicable Diseases
World Health Organization

The Future Oral Healthcare Practitioner

Nicole Rendell
Technical Officer, Dep’t. of Noncommunicable Diseases,
World Health Organization

Bridging the Gap: Reducing Global Oral Health Inequities

Dr. Habib Benzian
Professor of Epidemiology & Health Promotion,
NYU Dental College

Workforce Issues & How to Address the WHO Action Plan

Person-Centered Care Calls for Interprofessional Collaboration

Dr. Maria van den Muijsenbergh
Chair,
European Forum for Primary Care

Interprofessional Collaboration

This presentation will describe the utilization of the dental team, including dental therapists and dental hygienists, at their top of license to improve patient access to care, oral health outcomes, and patient and provider satisfaction. The use of dental therapists and dental hygienists in dental clinics, public health settings, and community sites, including long-term care and medical facilities, will be highlighted. Topics also include scope of practice, teledentistry, collaboration, and optimal intervention dentistry.
Heather Leubben, ADT, LDH
Member, Clinical innovations Team
Special Care & Pediatrics Specialty Teams
Apple Tree Dental

Treating the Most Vulnerable:
How Dental Hygienists Can Contribute Beyond the Dental Chair

By the end of the 20th century, the dental hygiene profession had shifted toward a predominantly curative and therapeutic model, primarily within dental offices, focusing on one-on-one patient interactions and driven largely by profit. This shift led to a decline in the profession’s original emphasis on community education, advocacy, and prevention, particularly affecting fragile and vulnerable communities. Over the past 30 years, this change has contributed to a significant rise in oral diseases, partly due to the lack of community-based education and outreach by dental hygienists beyond clinical settings. To address this, dental hygienists should take an active role in training teachers and other community leaders to promote collective oral health.
Dr. Consolata Pejrone
Cooperazione Odontoiatrica Internazionale

Learn perspectives from a panel of experts from 4 countries: