Prevention in Practice – introduction to the supplement

It is with great pleasure that we present, on behalf of the authors, the manuscripts from the Prevention in Practice Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, in June 2014. The purpose of the conference was to bring together key opinion leaders in prevention, service design and organization, public health and health economics to discuss the possibilities of, and barriers to, the implementation of effective prevention in general dental practices.

The conference followed a structure that first presented the possible, i.e. those disease entities that can be prevented in practice, how those diseases can be detected and the evidence-based therapies that could be leveraged to achieve health outcomes. We followed these presentations examining how this might be achieved considering work force, economics and practical examples.

Over 100 attendees were present at the conference, representing a wide range of interests and discussions were lively and informative. At the conclusion of the conference it was agreed by the presenters that the collation of the material, including those comments and suggestions from the attendees, should be made accessible to a wider audience. With the kind support of Colgate Palmolive, this special edition of BMC Oral Health has been produced, enabling widespread, free access to the proceedings of this conference.

We hope you find the contents useful, instructive and relevant to your field of practice.