Karawekpanyawong Raksanan

Dr

Thailand

English, Thai

Dr. Raksanan Karawekpanyawong teaches at Mahidol University and is involved with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Health Education. She received her doctorate from Niigata University in 2022 and led the award-winning Thailand World Oral Health Day 2023 campaign.

Raksanan Karawekpanyawong, graduated with first-class honors in Dental Surgery from Mahidol University, Thailand, in 2016. She earned her PhD in Oral Life Sciences, focusing on Preventive Dentistry, from Niigata University, Japan, in 2022.

Raksanan is an instructor in the Department of Community Dentistry at Mahidol University and serves as an external lecturer at Niigata University. She is a committee member of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Health Education and Research in Bangkok and part of the International Relations Committee of the Dental Association of Thailand. Her work includes research and projects in oral health promotion, prevention, global oral health, tobacco control, and nutrition.

She led the nationwide oral health campaign "Thailand World Oral Health Day 2023," winning the Best Media Campaign Award at the World Dental Congress in Sydney, and contributed to the Global Oral Health Status Report 2022 and the FDI Policy Statement on Oral Health Professionals in Tobacco Cessation.

Dentistry today is often focused on curing rather than caring. With complex and expensive technological advancements, dentists sometimes overlook the root causes of common oral diseases, such as dental caries and periodontal disease. ‘Prevention is better than cure’ has been emphasized for centuries, yet it remains undervalued. Despite advances in treatment, the prevalence of these diseases persists. Isn’t it time to rethink dentistry?