The session brought together UNHCR officers working across humanitarian settings worldwide to explore practical, evidence-based approaches for making oral health an integral component of comprehensive refugee health care.

Opening the session, Dr Elham Kateeb, FDI Councilor and member of the FDI Refugee Oral Health Project team, emphasized that oral diseases remain one of the most overlooked health challenges affecting displaced populations. Despite causing significant pain, infection, nutritional problems, and reduced quality of life, oral health is often absent from humanitarian health programmes.

Throughout the webinar, participants explored the oral health challenges experienced by refugees across different humanitarian settings and discussed how oral health can be integrated into existing primary healthcare services rather than delivered through separate vertical programmes.

Drawing on FDI's growing body of work in refugee oral health, Dr Kateeb presented evidence from:

• FDI's global survey on refugee oral health, 
• recent research examining the integration of oral health within the health strategies of major international refugee organizations, 
• and successful field experiences, including the FDI Refugee Oral Health Project implemented in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in collaboration with the Refugee Crisis Foundation and UNHCR Bangladesh. 

These examples demonstrated that simple, low-cost interventions—including oral health promotion, supervised toothbrushing, early prevention, and minimally invasive care—can be successfully integrated into existing humanitarian programmes while improving health outcomes.

The webinar also introduced practical opportunities for collaboration between FDI and UNHCR, highlighting how FDI can support humanitarian operations through technical guidance, educational resources, workforce training, advocacy, research, and its global network of National Dental Associations in more than 130 countries.

A key message throughout the discussion was that improving refugee oral health does not require creating parallel dental programmes. Instead, integrating oral health into existing primary healthcare, maternal and child health, nutrition, school health, and community health programmes offers a practical, sustainable, and cost-effective approach that strengthens humanitarian health systems as a whole.

Reflecting on the event, Dr Kateeb said:

"This webinar represents an important milestone for FDI's Refugee Oral Health Project. Having the opportunity to engage directly with UNHCR officers—the dedicated professionals working on the front lines to protect the health and well-being of refugees every day—is both an honour and an invaluable opportunity. We look forward to building on this dialogue and strengthening our collaboration with UNHCR and its outstanding leadership to ensure that oral health becomes an integral part of comprehensive, equitable, and people-centred refugee health care."

The discussion that followed reflected the strong interest of UNHCR colleagues in identifying practical opportunities to integrate oral health within their own operations. Participants shared experiences from different humanitarian contexts and exchanged ideas on challenges, priorities, and future collaboration.

The webinar marks another important step in FDI's ongoing efforts to advance oral health within humanitarian and conflict-affected settings and to strengthen partnerships that support equitable access to oral health care for displaced populations worldwide.

Learn more about FDI’s Refugee Oral Health Promotion and Care Project.