Alexandria, VA, USA – A symposium exploring the integration of oral health into primary health in Africa was presented at the 104th General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 50th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research on March 25-28, 2026 in San Diego, CA, USA.
The 2025 IADR/PER General Session in Barcelona highlighted the oral health research challenges in Africa, with poor access to data, fragmented data, a lack of political will, and limited funding as the major problems. It also provided an opportunity for African researchers and institutions to showcase their leadership roles in driving contextualized, data-informed, and sustainable solutions, including collaborative research networks, institution-based innovations, and field trials designed to generate locally relevant evidence for clinical interventions, capacity building, and future research.
Building on the momentum from last year, this symposium provided an opportunity for researchers in Africa to present data from ongoing work on the continent that are designed to achieve oral health for all by 2030. Specifically, it explored the integration of oral health into primary health, oral tumors, the prediction of risks in Africans using Ameloblastoma as an example, clinical trials for childhood diseases, community-based research, and the use of technology to support oral health. These studies all aimed to achieve universal health, where oral health is a driver for personalized health and economic growth.
Organized by Azeez Butali, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA and Abimbola Oladayo, A.T. Still University, Mesa, AZ, USA, the symposium, “Oral Health Research in Africa: Walking the Talk” took place on Friday, March 27 at 8 a.m. PDT (UTC-7).
About IADR/AADOCR
The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) is the largest division of IADR. Learn more at www.iadr.org.
