More than 1 billion people live in extreme poverty, earning less than $1 per day. Another 1.5 billion people sustain themselves on $1 to $2 per day, and every four seconds someone dies as a consequence of abject poverty.

Such statistics are difficult to grasp, especially for people enjoying the fruits of belonging to the wealthiest generation in history. About 200 years ago, most people in the world struggled to survive. Since then, momentous scientific discoveries, spectacular technological breakthroughs and dramatic social upheavals in certain parts of the world have heralded unprecedented progress and opened a widening chasm between the poorest and wealthiest continents and countries.

Improved diet, advances in medical technology and a better understanding of pathological processes led to better health in the wealthier nations. Yet the divide between the haves and the have-nots is deep and deepening when it comes to access to and utilization of health care services—and this is true even in developed countries.

Among other functions, the Council of Science Editors (CSE) exists to promote discussion and exchange on current and emerging issues of importance to scientific communities. In January 2005, the CSE established a task force to encourage and engage scientific publications of all disciplines to lend at least some of their editorial space to a Global Theme Issue on poverty and human development. Thanks to the efforts of this task force, more than 230 scientific journals agreed to publish articles and editorials on these subjects, with a common publication date of Oct. 22, 2007, two days before United Nations Day. Also on this date, monthly publications, like The Journal of the American Dental Association, agreed to post articles on these topics from their November editions online.

In this issue of JADA, four members of The Journal’s editorial boards from different parts of the world have contributed articles meant to foster a better understanding of the relationship among oral health, oral health care professionals and poverty.

Hobdell¹ points to the lack of practicing oral health care professionals in areas afflicted by poverty, as well as the lack of infrastructure that could improve health care delivery. Although there is no panacea for improving oral health in areas of need, establishing specific oral health policies may, in some societies, help improve the situation.

Sgan-Cohen and Mann² review some of the effects of poverty on the incidence of dental caries, periodontal diseases, oral cancer and tooth loss. They also explore the exclusion of appropriate and sustainable oral health coverage in most national health insurance schemes. Lastly, they call for more research, and they challenge all oral health care professionals to recognize their social responsibilities to help eradicate poverty in the world.

de la Fuente-Hernández and Acosta-Gío³ call for better educated dental school faculty members who are more than good clinicians. Only a research-educated faculty, they contend, can bring dentistry out of its preoccupation with private practice and develop dental students with a social conscience. Only then can our profession start to make an inroad into oral health disparities.

Cohen⁴ makes two important observations. She states that we need to develop a cadre of health care professionals involved in global scientific pursuits, and she posits that American investment in international research is an effective and welcome way to enhance our global image. Individual oral health care professionals and professional organizations, alone or in collaboration, need to address these important issues.

It is undisputed that oral health is part of overall health. However, attention to oral health from a public health perspective always takes second place to general health. The rationale for this discrepancy could be that oral diseases are not recognized as being associated with a high mortality rate. Yet, among patients with chronic conditions—HIV disease, for example—access to oral health care is always at the top of the list of desired but lacking services.

Robert F. Kennedy once said:

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.⁵

To say that there is nothing we can do as individuals is to shirk our responsibilities to the less fortunate. As private practitioners, academicians, researchers or policymakers, we can make a difference.