Overview: Shortages and distribution imbalances of the oral health workforce in countries contribute to suboptimal access to oral health services and high burden of untreated oral diseases and conditions. Building the capacity of health professionals and community-based health workers who have not traditionally been involved in oral health care to identify and refer the common oral diseases, is a strategy that is recommended to improve access to oral health services.

This online course is designed to build capacity of the health professionals and community-based health workers who are the first level of contacts in community, on identifying common oral diseases, acute pain relief and timely referral and delivering messages for oral hygiene maintenance.

This course is part of a series of four SEARO Courses on Oral Health. For a better learning experience, we recommend accessing the courses in the order listed below:

Course 1: Identifying oral diseases and promoting oral hygiene in primary healthcare setting

Course 2: Use of fluoride varnish to prevent dental caries

Course 3: Oral health care of pregnant women and newborns

Course 4: Phasing down dental amalgam and implementing environmentally sound practices to manage amalgam waste

Course duration: Approximately one and half hours.

Certificates: A Certificate of Achievement will be available to participants who score at least 80% of the total points available in the final assessment. Participants who receive a Certificate of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course.