USA - It's More Than Just Candy: Important Relationships Between Nutrition and Oral Health

Despite great advances in the last 50 years in oral health awareness, improved dental treatments, and fluoridation of municipal water supplies, dental problems continue to persist-especially in underserved populations.3-5

Today, dental caries (tooth decay) is still the most prevalent disease of children, affecting nearly 80% of children by age 17 years (see Table 1 for definitions of commonly used terms).2 The incidence of dental caries in children's primary teeth is also increasing6 as is the incidence in teenagers' permanent teeth.7,8 Twenty-six percent of American adults older than 20 years have had severe destructive periodontal disease.2 Nearly 68% of elder Americans between the ages of 80 and 90 years have some form of periodontal disease, a condition that often leads to tooth loss2 and may be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.9 In the elderly, tooth loss is still a major contributor to poor health and malnutrition.10,11 Yet despite the evidence, the importance of oral health to overall health is often underrecognized or underappreciated.......