About Oral Health

Oral Health

Overview

Oral Health is Canada's national clinical dental journal, a monthly professional magazine published in Toronto by Newcom Media Inc. and read by practising dentists across the country. It is the flagship title of the Oral Health Group, a small portfolio of print, digital and event products aimed at the Canadian dental profession, and it shares its website, oralhealthgroup.com, with its companion publication Oral Hygiene, which is written for dental hygienists.

The journal's defining characteristic is longevity. Founded in 1911, it has been published continuously for well over a century, which makes it one of the oldest professional publications in Canadian health care. Its publisher bills it as Canada's only audited national clinical dental publication appearing every month of the year, and its editorial model has remained consistent for decades: peer-style clinical articles, case reports and practice coverage written for the general dentist, supervised by an editorial board drawn from general practice and the major dental specialties, and distributed to the profession at large rather than sold mainly by subscription.

History

Oral Health was created in 1911, at a moment when Canadian dentistry was professionalising rapidly and the existing literature was dominated by the subscription-supported Dominion Dental Journal. According to a history of Canadian dentistry published by the Canadian Dental Association, the new journal was conceived by Dr. Wallace Seccombe, a University of Toronto alumnus who became the journal's first editor, serving from 1911 to 1935. Seccombe was a leading figure in preventive dentistry — he inaugurated what is described as the first chair of preventive dentistry in the world in 1916 and went on to serve as dean of the University of Toronto's dental faculty — and the journal he founded was built around prevention as its editorial focus.

Seccombe's business model was as distinctive as his subject matter. Rather than depending on subscriptions, Oral Health was supported by advertising and mailed free to every dentist in Canada each month, a distribution policy the journal retained for decades afterwards. After Seccombe's death in 1936, the journal continued to be published in Toronto by Seccombe House. In 1973 it was purchased by the Southam newspaper chain, becoming part of the trade-publishing operation that later traded as the Business Information Group and eventually sat within Vancouver-based Glacier Media.

The modern era began in January 2015, when Masthead Online reported that Annex Business Media and Newcom Business Media had acquired 67 trade publications and related digital assets from Glacier Media's Business Information Group for $19.65 million, in a deal whose sectors included dental publishing. Oral Health emerged from that transaction under Newcom Media, the Toronto-based family business founded by Jim Glionna, who had launched Today's Trucking in 1987 after a career in trucking magazines that itself traced back through his father Al's tenure at Maclean Hunter. Under Newcom the journal marked its centenary — its 100th anniversary issue had appeared in 2011 under the previous owners — and continued its monthly print schedule alongside a growing digital operation. Newcom's president, Joe Glionna, a second-generation member of the family in the business's management, leads the company that publishes the journal today.

Content and Coverage

The editorial heart of Oral Health is clinical content for practising dentists: technique articles, case reports and reviews covering restorative dentistry, periodontics, endodontics, implantology, oral surgery, orthodontics and the other disciplines of general practice, supplemented by abstracts drawn from the international dental literature. The journal's own masthead states that its content is written and edited for the practising dentist in Canada and supervised by an editorial board of consultants from both general practice and major specialties, and bylines in recent issues include clinician-researchers from Canadian dental faculties.

Around that clinical core, the magazine and its website carry the wider business of dentistry. Practice-management coverage addresses ownership, staffing, marketing and transitions; a governance and regulations stream follows the provincial regulators and national policy, including extensive reporting on the rollout of the Canadian Dental Care Plan and the profession's response to it; and a dental-industry news service reports company results, product launches and professional appointments. Recurring strands have included a Data Driven Dentistry series examining themes such as continuing education, dental laboratories, transition planning and staffing, and themed special issues, among them a lifelong-learning issue devoted to education.

The companion title, Oral Hygiene, addresses dental hygienists as clinicians in their own right, covering clinical skill development, new products and technologies and the hygienist's role in the dental team; the group published four issues of it in 2023 alongside thirteen issues of Oral Health including its special issue. The group's output extends beyond print into a podcast, Brush Up, hosted by editorial board member Dr. Luisa Schuldt, an annual Women in Oral Health Care webinar, and newsletters including NEXT GEN, launched for new dentists and students.

Audience and Reach

Oral Health's audience is the Canadian dental profession itself. The publisher's 2023 media kit reported an audited circulation of over 23,038 copies, citing the June 2022 AAM statement, and described that circulation as reaching all dentists across Canada as well as dental students, laboratories, dealers and manufacturers. Those figures are the publisher's own audited statement from that period rather than a current count, and no more recent audited figure is published in the material the publisher makes public.

The print journal is sold by subscription as well as distributed to the profession: the rate published in the journal's December 2022 issue was $64.95 plus taxes for one year in Canada. Around the magazine, the group operates a marketplace and jobs board on its website where dental practices and suppliers recruit staff and list products and services, extending the title's reach into the commercial life of dental practices between issues.

Digital Presence

The Oral Health Group website functions as a daily news service for the profession rather than a simple archive of the print journal. When checked in October 2026 it was carrying new material every day: research coverage such as a study exploring links between the oral microbiome, ageing and cognitive function dated October 16, 2026, reporting on a Toronto symposium where dental hygienists examined mental health and professional identity, conference coverage of Dentsply Sirona World 2026, and clinical features including a case report on advanced periodontal disease following CAR T-cell therapy. News categories span dental industry, dental research, governance and regulations, practice management and the two magazine brands, and the site hosts the group's marketplace listings.

The digital operation was rebuilt in the early 2020s: the group relaunched its website at the start of 2023 and has since added the Brush Up podcast on its site and Spotify, the OralHealthCE online continuing-education platform announced for 2024, and the NEXT GEN newsletter for early-career dentists. The group maintains social accounts under the Oral Health Group name, including @OralHealthGrp on X.

Ownership and Organisation

Oral Health is published by Newcom Media Inc., a privately owned, family-run business-to-business media company headquartered in Toronto, with a second office in Montreal. Newcom's chairman and founder is Jim Glionna; its president is Joe Glionna; and its vice-president of sales is Melissa Summerfield, per the company's published mastheads. The company publishes magazines, websites and trade shows across six markets — automotive, dental, insurance, meetings and incentives, supply chain and trucking — of which the Oral Health Group titles form the dental arm.

Within the Oral Health masthead published in late 2022, Amy Bielby was listed as managing editor, supported by a digital content coordinator, production and circulation staff, and the journal's editorial advisory board of clinicians. The journal carries the ISSN 0030-4204.

Contact and Availability

Oral Health is published monthly, with an additional special issue in some years, and is available by subscription and through the profession-wide distribution described above. The publisher's address is Newcom Media Inc., 5353 Dundas St. West, Suite 400, Toronto, ON M9B 6H8, and the Oral Health Group can be reached through its website at oralhealthgroup.com, which carries subscription information, the current issue's contents, the marketplace and the group's digital products.