LAUSR

This is seminally important, as till in the recent past, oral health was kept off the ambit of this declaration.[1] The 2018 reports indicated that oral health would effectively contribute to achieving the UHC and the sustainable development goals, outlined by the UN.[1,2] Poor oral health still remains a silent epidemic affecting about half of world’s population, who are often the marginalized and in resource limited settings.[1,2] Effectively, this number translates to about 3.58 billion people. Oral diseases, such as dental caries (tooth decay), gum disease, and oral cancer, are the most common forms of preventable noncommunicable diseases and affect people throughout their lifetime, causing pain, discomfort, absenteeism from work, disfigurement, and even death.[1,2] In spite of the best efforts, it has been reported that such oral disease incidence continues to increase in spite of best possible interventions and population level programs. Oral diseases are reported to be the fourth most expensive out‐of‐pocket disease to treat.[3]