In the 2019 WHO STEPS survey of Jordan — a country hosting millions of displaced people — I expected to see some reference to oral health. After all, the survey gathered detailed data on blood pressure, tobacco use, fruit intake, and diabetes. But there was no mention of dental pain , missing teeth, or bleeding gums.

That omission was more than a data gap. It was a mirror reflecting a much deeper problem in global public health.

As a dentist and global health researcher, I’ve been analyzing behavioral risk factors and chronic disease patterns among Syrian refugees and Jordanian nationals using that dataset. While the numbers revealed important trends — such as high tobacco use and low physical activity — they also revealed something global health priorities continue to overlook: the hu

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