The agreement is based on the common challenges faced by dental professionals who carry out their duties in both territories, challenges that, due to their complexity, can contribute to altering the paradigm of the profession.

In this sense, both the General Council of Dentists of Spain and the Ordem dos Médicos Dentistas of Portugal have identified a set of issues that require immediate intervention:

• Increase in funds allocated to the promotion of public oral health policies.
• Raise awareness among citizens about the relationship between oral health and general health.
• Increase the presence of both organizations in national health education campaigns such as, for example, the fight against smoking or microbial resistance due to the use of antibiotics.
• Raise awareness among the population about the importance of maintaining good habits and active oral health practices.
• Alert public opinion about the excess of dental professionals, which results in the deterioration of working conditions, and limit the creation of new dental study cycles.
• Fight against the commercialization of the sector, urging health authorities to create regulations that guarantee that control of decision-making in dental clinics rests with professionals.
• Implement appropriate professional registration mechanisms for graduates in other countries in order to rigorously and effectively evaluate the technical and scientific quality of these professionals.
• Strengthen the foundations and principles of the doctor-patient relationship based on professional ethics and deontology.
• Develop mechanisms that guarantee the continuous training of professionals through the establishment of colleges in Portugal and Scientific Societies in Spain.
• Implement the digital transition in the sector and face the challenge posed by artificial intelligence.

This agreement has been signed in Porto, within the framework of the 25th edition of the Congress of the Ordem dos Doctors Dentistas of Portugal by the president of the General Council of Dentists of Spain, Dr. Óscar Castro Reino, and by the batonário of the Ordem dos Dentists of Portugal, Dr. Miguel Pavâo, whose desire is to “work together to deepen the Iberian cooperation of the two organizations in order to contribute to the benefit of Dentistry and public oral health policies in both countries.”