Question

Why is the Philippines considered a "less developed" country, and how does that have an affect on oral health?

Answer 1

The major policy challenge the Philippines faces in its Medium-Term Development Plan is improving its infrastructure, access to education and development resources, and ensuring jobs for all. Both road transport and power are critical to a more closely integrated Philippine economy, helping to attract widely dispersed private-sector investment. Increasing secondary enrolment and improving the standards of teachers and pupils are vital reforms, without which there can be no human and economic development or job creation. Establishment of appropriate job creation strategies is vital for the Philippines.

Infrastructure is a critical enabler of economic development of the Philippines. However, the Philippines lags behind other countries in Southeast Asia in quality infrastructure. Its road network, to take that example again, is one of the longest, yet it is also of poor quality and thus unable to provide connectivity and efficiency in the delivery of goods. The Philippines also has the highest road density (number of kilometres of road for every square kilometre of land), but fewer kilometres of paved road per 100 people than Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam

Going back another decade does not change the overall low investment rate in the Philippines. It only highlights an underlying constraint and policy challenge. Unlike other countries in Asia – or the selected countries

Power and energy are a form of infrastructure that impinges on economic growth. Their availability and lack thereof impact the effectiveness of transport and related infrastructure.7 And where there are location differences in sources and use, they may affect the country’s goal of more inclusive growth. The Philippines experienced its worst power crisis in the early 1990s, which it took the country two years to address – through emergency powers to the President, government restructuring (which created the Department of Energy), comprehensive legislation to restructure the energy sector through the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) that only came into force later, and separate laws to encourage private sector participation (build-operate-transfer laws). There is both government and independent analysis of the country’s power and energy sector (e.g. NEDA, 2004; Del Mundo and Espos, 2011) which need no further summary. Suffice it to say that assessments seem to concur that the various measures taken during the power crisis laid the foundations of long-term power and energy development, averting imbalances and encouraging private sector participation in energy generation and distribution in a more competitive environment.

Despite great achievements in oral health of populations globally, problems still remain in many communities all over the world - particularly among under-privileged groups in developed and developing countries. Dental caries and periodontal diseases have historically been considered the most important global oral health burdens. At present, the distribution and severity of oral diseases vary among different parts of the world and within the same country or region. The significant role of socio-behavioural and environmental factors in oral disease and health is evidenced in an extensive number of epidemiological surveys.

Dental caries is still a major oral health problem in most industrialized countries, affecting 60-90% of schoolchildren and the vast majority of adults. It is also a most prevalent oral disease in several Asian and Latin-American countries

In many developing countries, access to oral health services is limited and teeth are often left untreated or are extracted because of pain or discomfort. Throughout the world, losing teeth is still seen as a natural consequence of ageing. While in some industrialized countries there has been a positive trend of reduction in tooth loss among adults in recent years, the proportion of edentulous adults aged 65 years and older are still high in some countries