The year 2018 is quickly coming to an end, but FDI’s members continue to ramp up their efforts to tackle local and global issues affecting oral health.

Last month’s United Nations High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases proved to be a disappointment for oral health. But our work cannot stop. Now more than ever, FDI and our members need to renew efforts to lead the world to optimal oral health.

September was an eventful month at FDI. It began with the FDI World Dental Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, then a sojourn in Montevideo, Uruguay, and ended with a visit to Lisbon, Portugal, for the launch of an exciting initiative to integrate dental clinics into primary healthcare facilities.

I look forward to welcoming all attendees to FDI World Dental Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 5 to 8 September 2018. We are thrilled to host this year’s congress with our friends and colleagues from the Argentinian Dental Association (Confederación Odontológica de la República Argentina). 

While spending time with our members and partners in Colombia and the United States, I was reminded once again of the importance of working together to tackle oral health challenges.

As I travelled to Switzerland, China and Japan this month, it was inspiring to witness the many activities and programmes carried out by FDI and its members that are already having an impact on improving global oral health.

Each time I travel to a new place, I am always impressed by our members’ commitment and dedication to FDI’s mission and values. FDI’s oral health family is always a constant source of pride and inspiration.

In the city of Mozart’s birthplace and the land of The Sound of Music, FDI’s European Regional Organization (ERO) held its spring meeting in beautiful Salzburg, Austria.

I was very fortunate to spend World Oral Health Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh with the Bangladesh Dental Society and Unilever.

February was very productive for FDI. I attended two of the world’s largest and renowned dental meetings organized in FDI member countries and proudly celebrated 25 years of partnership with Wrigley.

Happy New Year to all my friends and colleagues of FDI World Dental Federation. This year promises to be another exciting and productive one for FDI Members and Partners.

My travels in November - to the tremendously successful annual meetings of the German Dental Association and the Portuguese Dental Association respectively, and to FDI’s headquarters in Geneva - reinforced my confidence that the international dental community is well equipped to embrace the challenges of the future.

Over the course of the last month, my new role as FDI President has already taken me to three different continents where I have been continually impressed and energized by the dedication and expertise of our local members and representatives.

I was honoured to formally take up my position as President of FDI during the World Dental Congress in Madrid in September and am excited by the challenges that lie ahead. To date, FDI has created and sustained programmes important to our members and the people in the countries we serve. We’ve united regions, and achieved financial sustainability. We’ve secured new partnerships, grown our reserves, and ensured that we have the resources we need to accomplish our goal of “leading the world to optimal oral health”.

Before I began my mandate in 2015, I reflected on the best way to keep members up-to-date with FDI work, and what their President was doing to consolidate FDI-NDA relations and advance our goals worldwide. The result of my deliberations was my personal letter to members, delivered into their email inbox every month. It has been a pleasure.

This month I report on my meeting in Astana with the Minister of Health of Kazakhstan and members of the newly-formed FDI national committee for Kazakhstan; my meeting in Mexico City on the role of our federation in the prevention of oral diseases through our advocacy work; a few key event not to miss in Madrid related to World Oral Health Day, the Oral Health Observatory, and a joint session with the NCD Alliance.

June marked the decade-long milestone of a fruitful partnership and saw advances in FDI projects, particularly the Oral Health Observatory, Global Periodontal Health Project, Peri-Implant Disease Partnership, and Oral Health for an Ageing Population Partnership.

On behalf of FDI, I would like to congratulate former Ethiopian Minister of Health, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on his appointment as Director-General (DG) of the World Health Organization (WHO), possibly the most important job in global health. His appointment follows an election process at the 70th World Health Assembly in May and hopefully African Member States can in particular look forward to a boost to health strategy on the African continent during the new DGs five-year mandate.

From our fruitful mid-year meeting, to the successful results of WOHD, to our first regional congress in Africa, I report on April’s eventful agenda

March is always an exciting period for new initiatives at FDI - increasingly so since 2013, when we began celebrating World Oral Health Day (WOHD) on 20 March. Early results from our Live Mouth Smart campaign in 2017 are very encouraging, showing that the reach of our awareness raising efforts is growing. I was also so pleased to be the first FDI President to celebrate WOHD in Africa.

The Middle-East has been one of my focal points during the past few weeks, with events in Aswan (Egypt), Dubai (United Arab Emirates). More recently, I was in Chicago, for the Leadership Meeting of the American Dental Association (ADA) and, crucially, a strategy workshop for the Executive Board.

For my first Letter of 2017, I would like to express my confidence that FDI can keep up the momentum of 2016 in all aspects of its work. We have a number of exciting campaigns, projects and events underway, which will serve to once again enhance the reputation of FDI as the go-to organization for oral health worldwide.