MANILA – Oral health is essential to people’s overall health, well-being and quality of life. However, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report finds that roughly 800 million – or 42% of people – in the Western Pacific Region suffer from oral diseases, such as untreated dental caries, gum disease or tooth loss.
The Western Pacific regional summary of the WHO global oral health status report released today also warns that, with the growing population of older adults in the Region, there could be a further increase in the burden of oral diseases in years to come unless countries integrate essential oral health services into universal health coverage benefit packages.
Among WHO’s six regions, the Western Pacific has the world’s highest burden of tooth loss. Roughly 92 million people in the Region aged 20 years and older are missing all of their teeth, including an estimated one in five adults aged 60 years and older. Poor oral health among older people can negatively affect their daily lives, resulting in pain, impaired chewing and nutritional deficiencies.
“Oral health has been the forgotten public health agenda, yet it impacts everyone at all ages. We need good oral health to nourish our bodies, to speak, and to feel confident when interacting in our communities,” said Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Acting Regional Director for the Western Pacific. “As countries work towards universal health coverage, oral health promotion and treatment should be included in health-care packages.”
Despite oral diseases being largely preventable, few countries in the Western Pacific invest adequately in efforts to address the issue. About half of the countries in the Region spent less than US$ 10 per person per year on oral health care, compared with the global average of US$ 50 per person per year in 2019, the latest year for which data are available. Additionally, a dentist-centred workforce model dominates in most countries in the Region, with inadequate task sharing and skill mixes within the wider oral health team.
Upstream interventions that target the underlying causes of poor oral health, such as policies to reduce free sugars intake or national guidelines to ensure people receive optimal levels of fluoride through drinking water, toothpaste or other methods, are cost-effective and reach wider populations. However, half of the countries in the Western Pacific do not have an oral health policy, strategy or action plan. Moreover, oral health services are often not covered within universal health coverage benefit packages. Fluoride toothpaste, a basic prevention method, is not affordable or widely available in some places in the Region, especially for the most vulnerable populations.
Over the past 30 years, the Western Pacific has experienced a nearly 30% increase in oral diseases, from an estimated 629 million cases in 1990 to more than 800 million cases in 2019. While oral diseases impact people of all ages, they disproportionally affect marginalized groups, including people in low-income households, people living in hard-to-reach communities and older people living alone or in care homes. These populations often have limited or no access to oral health services.
As one of the most common noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, oral diseases share common risk factors with other NCDs, such as cancer and diabetes. Almost nine out of 10 deaths in the Region today are due to NCDs. Through reducing risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol consumption and diets that are high in free sugars, the burden of both oral diseases and other NCDs can be reduced in the future.
To help countries take action to improve people’s oral health, WHO Member States adopted a historic resolution on oral health in 2021 which aims to provide oral health prevention and treatment as part of universal health coverage. WHO has since developed a comprehensive Global Strategy on Oral Health, which was adopted by countries at the 2022 World Health Assembly. The new Global Oral Health Action Plan 2023–2030, recently adopted at the 2023 World Health Assembly, includes 100 action-oriented interventions for stronger and more coordinated mobilization on oral health.
“As we work to tackle the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases in the Region to achieve our For the Future vision, I urge countries to increase political commitment on oral health and integrate it as part of noncommunicable diseases and universal health care agendas,” said Dr Jakab. “Countries must work together with communities, civil society and the private sector to achieve ambitious targets of Global Oral Health Action Plan towards Universal Health Coverage for oral health by 2030.”