Feature

Number crunching

Are the nation’s molars up to the daily grind? James Munro has been chewing over the figures

National surveys of the state of the teeth of the adult population in the UK have been commissioned on a periodic basis since 1968. The latest survey, in 1988, showed a steady improvement in our dental health compared with previous national surveys.

Between 1968 and 1988 the pool of sound untreated teeth in England and Wales increased by 65%, while the number of decayed teeth fell by 36% - despite increasing numbers of older people (figure 1). The greatest improvements occurred in the young adult age group (figure 2).

While the proportion of adults with no natural teeth fell in all social classes, figure 3 suggests that the ‘oral health divide’ may have widened during the 1980s.

The DMFT score (decayed, missing and filled teeth) is commonly used as a simple index of dental health status. Figure 4 shows how people in Scotland and Northern Ireland fared worse in terms of DMFT than those in England and Wales. This is consistent with other measures of dental health status.

Significant variations in the availability of dental services continue to exist in the UK. Figure 5 gives the average population size served by each dental practitioner, emphasising that the south-east is better served than the north and west.

The changing nature of oral health and disease have led to changes in dental practice, as the volume of preventive and low-tech work increases at the expense of moderately invasive work (figure 6).

Thanks to Richard Watts.