Abstract
This chapter explores the concepts and principles underpinning the formation, implementation, and assessment of policy, and explains the process and impact of public policies likely to influence the oral health of older people who are frail. Within the practical context of development and implementation of health policies, the relationships between oral health policy and population-based healthcare are explored. Healthcare does not exist in a sociobehavioral vacuum as governments through public policy strive to balance access and extent against the cost and priority of care. Facilitating policy to affect change requires awareness of need, indicators of change, financial implications, and political opportunism. Implementing policies on oral healthcare that are sustainable for older people is a complicated balance of multiple political, philosophical, economic, and pragmatic issues.