Our founder and clinical director, Dr. Miguel Stanley, wrote a thought-provoking and pertinent article on the importance of reassessing dental funding worldwide, in order to prioritize dental care, connect dentists and physicians, uphold the undeniable mouth-body link, and make dentistry more readily accessible to everyone.

For years, leaders in dentistry have emphasized that the mouth is an integral part of the body, yet healthcare systems worldwide continue to treat it as an afterthought. Despite overwhelming evidence linking oral health to systemic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders, dental care remains chronically underfunded, deprioritized, and disconnected from mainstream medicine.

This is becoming an obvious problem, and we need to have more conversations about it.

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is a clear example of this imbalance. In the 2024/25 financial year, NHS England received £193.2 billion for healthcare, yet only £3.2 billion – 1.7% of the total – was allocated to dentistry. Not even 2% of the total healthcare budget. This clearly reflects how little importance the UK government places on oral health.

But this isn’t just a UK issue. This pattern repeats itself globally, reinforcing a dangerous misconception – that the mouth and the rest of the body are somehow separate. This disconnect is a major driver behind the rise of chronic diseases worldwide.

So, when nearly every major health condition has a proven link to oral health, why does funding remain so disproportionate?

The Mouth-Body Connection: Science is Clear, Yet Policy Lags Behind

The outdated belief that oral health is separate from systemic health is not just misguided – it’s dangerous. Scientific research continues to confirm that oral disease is not a localized problem but a key driver of systemic inflammation, chronic illness, and even mortality.

• Alzheimer’s Disease: A Science Advances study found Porphyromonas gingivalis, a bacterium linked to gum disease, in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, suggesting a potential causal role in neurodegeneration.
• Cardiovascular Disease: Individuals with periodontitis are twice as likely to suffer from heart attacks and strokes, as oral bacteria contribute to arterial inflammation and blood clot formation.
• Diabetes: The connection between diabetes and gum disease is bidirectional – poor glycemic control worsens gum disease, while periodontal inflammation increases blood sugar levels, making diabetes harder to manage.
• Autoimmune Conditions: Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are linked to chronic oral infections that trigger systemic inflammation, exacerbating disease progression.

These are not isolated findings. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed in 2021 that oral health is directly tied to overall health. A Scientific Reports study linked tooth loss and dry mouth to increased cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality.

The link between oral inflammation and systemic inflammation is undeniable. Reducing chronic infections in the mouth leads to an immediate drop in systemic inflammatory markers.

Imagine if we not only focused on prevention but also properly addressed and fixed long-standing oral health issues.

I recently wrote an article on Revision Dentistry, a concept focused on identifying and replacing outdated, failing, and biologically incompatible dental work with modern, biomimetic, and biocompatible solutions. Imagine a world where governments and insurance providers funded real dentistry – not just basic fillings and extractions, but comprehensive oral rehabilitation aimed at eliminating sources of chronic infection, and biomechanical dysfunction. Restoring the mouth properly, with a focus on long-term health and longevity.

How much would this reduce the burden on healthcare systems?

• How many hospital admissions could be prevented if patients no longer suffered from chronic, undiagnosed infections?
• How much would productivity increase if people weren’t constantly battling the systemic effects of oral disease?
• How much money would insurance companies save if inflammatory markers across entire populations were dramatically reduced?
• What impact would this have on the health of nations and their economies?

I would argue quite a significant one.

A Global Issue: The Funding Gap in Oral Health

The UK is just one example of a worldwide failure to prioritize oral health. Across different healthcare models – whether public or private – dentistry is consistently underfunded, inaccessible, and detached from broader medical care.

• United States: Despite a largely privatized healthcare system, 74 million Americans lack dental coverage. Dental insurance is often separate from medical insurance, leading to high out-of-pocket costs – averaging $1,500 per household in 2020 – which disproportionately affects lower-income populations.
• Canada & Australia: Even with universal healthcare, dental care is frequently excluded, forcing patients to rely on private insurance or pay out-of-pocket. This creates a two-tiered system where those who can afford care receive it, while others suffer in silence.
• Portugal: The Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS), Portugal’s National Health Service, allocated €14 billion to healthcare in 2023. However, none of that funding was designated for dental care. Dentistry in Portugal is almost entirely private, with only a handful of dentists working under the public system.  

This has led to significant disparities in access, particularly for lower-income populations. A 2023 Lancet study found that individuals with poor oral health had a 75% higher risk of developing liver cancer, while 2024 Japanese research linked irregular brushing habits to increased cardiovascular disease risk.

We know that addressing oral disease reduces systemic inflammation – so why are we still treating dentistry as a separate entity rather than an integral part of overall healthcare?

The Cost of Neglect: How Much Are We Really Losing?

70 year-old patient with a series of chronic infections around old failed dental treatments with serious health issues for the past 20 years. No request for dental treatment was made by his primary healthcare physicians.

It’s time we stop looking at oral health as just a matter of prevention and start acknowledging the massive economic benefits of properly treating existing conditions.

Right now, most global healthcare systems allocate little to nothing to dentistry.

Shouldn’t this change?

Or better yet, shouldn’t we finally start treating the mouth with the same priority as the heart, the brain, or the kidneys?

Why this stubbornness to see it as a separate part of the body when it clearly impacts the whole?

A Call to Action: The Path Forward

If we are serious about reducing the burden of chronic disease, oral health must be fully integrated into mainstream healthcare policy. This means:

• Breaking down the artificial divide between dentistry and medicine. Oral health professionals should be fully integrated into multidisciplinary healthcare teams, working alongside physicians to manage conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• Reforming funding structures. Governments must allocate healthcare budgets in a way that reflects the systemic impact of poor oral health. A 1.7% budget allocation, as seen in the UK, is nowhere near enough to address the scope of the problem. The mouth and teeth can create more than 1,7% of health issues in the body. It’s time to think different about this disparity.
• Expanding access to comprehensive care. Whether through universal healthcare systems or private insurance models, funding should not just cover basic procedures –it should support biological and functional restoration, aligned with 21st-century science.
• Educating policymakers and the public. The perception of dentistry as a secondary concern must change. 

Oral health is not just about teeth – it’s about preventing life-threatening diseases, reducing healthcare costs, and improving quality of life.

Moving Forward: A Healthier Future

As healthcare professionals, we witness the consequences of neglecting oral health every day. Patients endure preventable pain, families face financial hardship due to inadequate insurance coverage, and healthcare systems bear the burden of chronic conditions that could have been eliminated through proper oral intervention.

The numbers speak for themselves: billions are spent treating diseases that could have been prevented – or even reversed – by addressing oral infections, inflammation, and biomechanical dysfunctions.

Oral health is not a luxury; it is a necessity, integral to systemic well-being.

It is time for governments and insurance companies to rethink their approach – for the benefit of everyone.

And honestly, I can only imagine how much money they would save if they finally got it right.

*Written by Dr. Miguel Stanley.