Global burden of oral diseases: emerging concepts, management and interplay with systemic health

Abstract

Objectives: This study presents the global burden of major oral diseases with an exegetical commentary on their current profiles, the critical issues in oral healthcare and future perspectives.

Methods: A narrative overview of current literature was undertaken to synthesise the contexts with critical elaboration and commentary.

Results: Oral disease is one of the most common public health issues worldwide with significant socio-economic impacts, and yet it is frequently neglected in public health policy. The oral data extracted from the Global Burden of Disease Study in 2010 (Murray et al, 2012) show that caries, periodontal disease, edentulism, oral cancer and cleft lip/palate collectively accounted for 18 814 000 disability-adjusted life-years; and the global burden of periodontal disease, oral cancer and caries increased markedly by an average of 45.6% from 1990 to 2010 in parallel with the major non-communicable diseases like diabetes by 69.0%. Oral diseases and non-communicable diseases are closely interlinked through sharing common risk factors (e.g. excess sugar consumption and tobacco use) and underlying infection/inflammatory pathways.

Conclusions: Oral disease remains a major public health burden worldwide. It is of great importance to integrate oral health into global health agenda via the common risk factor approach. The long-term sustainable strategy for global oral health should focus on health promotion and disease prevention through effective multidisciplinary teamwork.

Keywords: caries; cleft lip/palate; common risk factors approach; disease burden; edentulism; non-communicable diseases; oral cancer; oral diseases; oral mucosal diseases; periodontal disease.