Comments invited

Comments from national perio societies and dentistry bodies are now invited on their co-authored 'Perio Focus green paper', which highlights prevention, diagnosis and treatment as three areas for action.

Entitled ‘Impact of the global burden of periodontal disease on oral health, wellbeing and nutrition of mankind’, the green paper was written by Maurizio Tonetti (Journal of Clinical Periodontology editor and EFP member) and Søren Jepsen (EFP president), together with Li-Jian Jin (councillor of the Asian Pacific Society of Periodontology (APSP)) and Joan Otomo-Corgel (immediate past president of the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP)). 

The document highlights three areas for action: prevention, diagnosis and treatment. A full outline of these can be found within the green paper (link: http://prevention.efp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/greenpaper-v3.pdf). It states that periodontology is “supported by a strong and coherent body of evidence that allows identification of appropriate preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to manage the enormous burden of disease represented by periodontitis [and] its health, wellbeing, social, and economic consequences.” It also notes that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that severe periodontitis is the sixth most prevalent disease worldwide, affecting more than 750m people and imposing significant healthcare and socioeconomic costs.

Comment is invited from individual periodontologists, general dentists, oral health professionals, national periodontal societies, dentistry related bodies, patient groups, medical professionals and other relevant third parties from across the globe. EFP affiliated national societies and their individual members are encouraged to read the green paper and to provide comments and suggest changes.

Contributions should be sent to greenpaper@efp.org before February 16, 2016, indicating the name and country of the contributing person or national perio society. Contributions should state clearly the paragraph and sentence where additions, amendments or deletions are proposed. All comments will be considered and carefully assessed by the paper’s primary authors, who will decide upon their inclusion in the final document. An appendix will be published online which will include all submissions.