Dental Caries Epidemiology

An estimated 90% of schoolchildren worldwide and most adults have experienced caries, with the disease being most prevalent in Asian and Latin American countries and least prevalent in African countries.In the United States, dental caries is the most common chronic childhood disease, being at least five times more common than asthma. It is the primary pathological cause of tooth loss in children. Between 29% and 59% of adults over the age of fifty experience caries.


The number of cases has decreased in some developed countries, and this decline is usually attributed to increasingly better oral hygiene practices and preventive measures such as fluoride treatment.Nonetheless, countries that have experienced an overall decrease in cases of tooth decay continue to have a disparity in the distribution of the disease.Among children in the United States and Europe, 60-80% of cases of dental caries occur in 20% of the population.A similarly skewed distribution of the disease is found throughout the world with some children having none or very few caries and others having a high number. Some countries, such as Australia, Nepal, and Sweden, have a low incidence of cases of dental caries among children, whereas cases are more numerous in Costa Rica and Slovakia.