Oral health: key points

Children's oral health

• Children's oral health in Scotland has improved over the last 30 years, although this improvement slowed down during the 1990s. Many Scottish children still suffer from tooth decay and have begun 'a journey of deteriorating oral health' to adulthood.
• In 2008, 57.7% of Primary 1 children in Scotland were found to have no obvious decay experience (an improvement from 2006, when the level was 54.1%).
• In 2007, 59.1% of Primary 7 children in Scotland were found to have no obvious decay experience in their permanent dentition (an improvement from 2005, when the level was 52.9%).
• Dental disease inequalities persist, with children from socially deprived backgrounds having higher levels of decay experience. Only children from the more affluent areas are currently meeting the 2010 Scottish target that 60% of children should have no obvious decay experience.
• Scotland's children have among the highest levels of decay in the United Kingdom/Great Britain and Western Europe.
• Projections indicate that decay experience in 12-year-old children will remain at the current level until 2010, unless recently introduced public health measures are effective.

Adults' oral health

The oral health of adults in Scotland has improved markedly over the last 30 years. The trend is likely to continue into the future, with fewer adults having no natural teeth and more adults retaining more teeth into their older years. Data being collected from the Scottish Health Survey (2008–2011) will provide further information on the extent of this progress.

Section updates: The last major update of this section was completed in June 2009. The next major update is due to be carried out by end June 2010.