Closer collaboration between oral health professionals and family physicians is necessary for the prevention, early detection and proper management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and vital to promote healthy lifestyles. Pathways for early detection of periodontitis by family physicians, and of NCDs by dental practitioners should be developed. This is the main conclusion of the recently published consensus report of the joint workshop of the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) and the European region of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA Europe).

Prof. David Herrera, chair of the EFP workshop committee and first author of the publication, Prof. Lior Shapira, past EFP president (2021-2022) and co-author, and Prof. Shlomo Vinker, president of WONCA Europe and co-author of the publication, discuss with Bruno de Carvalho the paper published by the Journal of Clinical Periodontology which summarises the discussions that took place at the EFP’s focused workshop on periodontology and family doctors in July 2022 in Madrid, Spain.