Universal access to oral health: a systematic approach to moral Imagination

Oral health is an essential component of over-all health and quality of life of an individual as well as
the community. Not much has been done at the government level to improve the oral health of the
people which continues to be one of the areas of greatest health inequity in our society. Lack of access
to care is a critical barrier to good oral health. The aim of the current literature review is to consider
both the barriers and opportunities for policy development to redress the ongoing gaps access to oral
health services and the consequential challenge to improve oral health outcomes. Reducing inequity in
oral health between different socioeconomic-status groups has been stated as one of the principal
global goals for oral health. Due to the limited public funding for oral health care, it is important to
adopt an evidence‐based approach for allocation of the available resources. Oral health promotion and
disease prevention are essential to any strategies aimed at improving access to care. Dental educators
also provide learning experiences for dental students that help them to develop the belief that
universal access to oral health care is a social justice imperative that will compel them to provide care
to unprivileged patients after they graduate.