August 2017

Overview

Oral health is an important part of overall health¹ and an essential part of staying healthy. The health of the teeth, mouth, and surrounding craniofacial (skull and face) structures is central to a person’s overall health and well-being.^{2, 3} Maintaining good oral health allows a person to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch, chew, swallow, and make facial expressions to show feelings and emotions. Poor oral health has serious consequences, including painful, disabling, and costly oral diseases.

Disparities in oral health outcomes are profound in the United States. Despite major improvements in oral health for the population as a whole, oral health disparities exist for many racial and ethnic groups by socioeconomic status, gender, age, and geographic location.⁴ In general, people with lower levels of education and income and people from select racial/ethnic groups have higher rates of oral disease.^{3, 5, 6, 7, 8} Although improvements have been made in reducing oral health disparities, disparities persist among children and adults with untreated tooth decay and among those with oral cancer and periodontitis.⁴

Lack of access to dental care for all ages remains a public health challenge. Potential strategies to improve access to dental services and the oral health of children and adults include:

• Implementing and evaluating activities that have an impact on oral health behaviors
• Promoting interventions to reduce tooth decay, such as dental sealants and fluoride use
• Evaluating and improving methods of monitoring oral diseases and conditions
• Increasing the capacity of state dental health programs to provide preventive oral health services
• Increasing the number of community health centers with an oral health component

Leading Health Indicators

Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) are critical health issues that—if tackled appropriately—will dramatically reduce the leading causes of death and preventable illnesses. The Oral Health LHI is:

• Children, adolescents, and adults who visited the dentist in the past year (OH-7)

Learn More About Oral Health

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

Over the past decade, there was no significant change in the percentage of persons aged 2 years and over who had a dental visit in the past 12 months (44.6% in 2004 and 43.2% in 2014, age adjusted). In 2014, several population groups in specific demographic categories had the highest rate of a dental visit in the past 12 months, including females, the white non-Hispanic population, persons aged 2–17 years, those with at least some college education, those with family incomes 400% of the poverty threshold or above, and persons with private health insurance.

Explore the Latest Data

Who’s Leading the Leading Health Indicators?

A Community-Based Approach to Improving Oral Health in Virginia

The Dental Health Program team at the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) knew that children’s oral health was an important issue to address in their state. In 2009, a Basic Screening Survey found that 47.4% of third grade children in Virginia had a history of tooth decay and 15.4% had untreated tooth decay.

Sharon Logue is the Sealant Program Coordinator in the Dental Health Program at VDH. “Our goal was to increase access to oral health care for high-risk children in targeted, mostly rural, areas across our state,” she says. The VDH team developed a very effective way to reach those kids in need: they brought preventive oral health care straight to their schools.

Leading Health Indicator Infographic

¹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General. Oral health in America: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; 2000, p. 33–59.

² U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General. Oral health in America: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; 2000, p. 155–88.

³ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A national call to action to promote oral health, Rockville (MD): National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; 2003 May, p. 1–53. NIH Publication; no. 03-5303.

⁴ Dye BA, Tan S, Smith V, et al. Trends in oral health status: United States, 1988–1994 and 1999–2004. Vital Health Stat. 2007 Apr;11(248):1–92.

⁵ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Disparities in Oral Health [Internet]. 2017 Feb 14 [cited 2017 Aug 21]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/oral_health_disparities/index.htm

⁶ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oral Health: Working to Improve Oral Health for All Americans; At a glance 2016 [Internet]. Atlanta: CDC. c2016 [cited 2017 Aug 18]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/pdf/aag-oral-health.pdf

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