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On the afternoon of December 11, the news came out that the central government approved the newly established oral health policy based on my writing on Kakao Talk. After that, the Kakao Talk screen filled with many people's congratulatory messages. It showed how many people were thirsty for proper oral health policy and business implementation. Although the Ministry of Public Administration and Security remains to give the final approval, such as the reorganization of the position and revision of enforcement rules, it is expected that the establishment of a department exclusively responsible for oral health, which has long been a cherished dream of the oral health community, will proceed smoothly.
The criteria that the government considers to be important to the oral health of its people are the policies, budgets, and organization of oral health. Since the establishment of the department of oral health in 1997, Korea enacted the oral health law in 2000 and carried out a national health project backed by the law, but the department disappeared after 10 years. As a result, the oral health project and budget have shrunk together, and the ministry's budget for oral health is only 600 million won. Even if 700 million won is spent every three years on children's health, 1.2 billion won on the establishment of the handicapped dental center, and 1.5 billion won on dental and industrial technology, the central government's budget for oral health is only 4 billion won. The central government's budget is set to a level similar to that of local governments.
The establishment of the oral health division is expected to take place sometime next year, but it has raised some concerns that the department's budget for work is not much different from that of this year. The first is the project content and budget needed to survive as a section. Until now, the government's interest in oral health policy has been limited to dental services and there has been criticism that there is no new content.
President Moon Jae-in refers to “Moon Jan-in Care,” which promotes health insurance protection. However, the plan to increase the guarantee of dental health, lowering the burden of senior citizens' dentures, implants, scaling, and resin filling on health insurance is just an implementation of existing business plans. More importantly, there is no pool of people to worry about oral health policy in the government, and as a result, it is difficult for the government to produce oral health and dental care policies. The government should be prepared to establish and implement a comprehensive plan for future oral health and dentistry. Otherwise, it would be hard to dispel concerns that it might have created a bowl for the dental hygiene department that it cannot fill, resulting in an unfamiliar organization.
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