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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Oral Conditions

Goal: Improve oral health by increasing access to oral health care, including preventive services.

A woman and her young daughter smile while brushing their teeth over a sink.

Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in children and adults in the United States.1,2 Healthy People 2030 focuses on reducing tooth decay and other oral health conditions and helping people get oral health care services.3 

Regular preventive dental care can catch problems early, when they’re usually easier to treat.4 But many people don’t get the care they need, often because they can’t afford it. Untreated oral health problems can cause pain and disability and are linked to other diseases.

Strategies to help people access dental services can help prevent problems like tooth decay, gum disease, and tooth loss. Individual-level interventions like topical fluorides and community-level interventions like community water fluoridation can also help improve oral health. In addition, teaching people how to take care of their teeth and gums can help prevent oral health problems.

Objective Status

  • 3 Target met or exceeded
  • 3 Improving
  • 2 Little or no detectable change
  • 3 Getting worse
  • 3 Baseline only
  • 1 Developmental
  • 0 Research

Learn more about objective types

Related Objectives

The following is a sample of objectives related to this topic. Some objectives may include population data.

Oral Conditions — General

Increase the proportion of oral and pharyngeal cancers detected at the earliest stage — OH‑07
Baseline only
Reduce the proportion of adults with active or untreated tooth decay — OH‑03
Improving
Increase use of the oral health care system — OH‑08
LHI label
Target met or exceeded

Adolescents

Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with active and untreated tooth decay — OH‑02
Improving
Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with lifetime tooth decay — OH‑01
Little or no detectable change

Health Care Access and Quality

Reduce the proportion of people who can't get the dental care they need when they need it — AHS‑05
Target met or exceeded
Increase the proportion of people with dental insurance — AHS‑02
Improving

Health Policy

Increase the proportion of people whose water systems have the recommended amount of fluoride — OH‑11
Baseline only

Nutrition and Healthy Eating

Reduce consumption of added sugars by people aged 2 years and over — NWS‑10
LHI label
Little or no detectable change

Older Adults

Reduce the proportion of older adults with untreated root surface decay — OH‑04
Target met or exceeded
Reduce the proportion of adults aged 45 years and over who have lost all their teeth — OH‑05
Getting worse
Reduce the proportion of adults aged 45 years and over with moderate and severe periodontitis — OH‑06
Baseline only

Preventive Care

Increase the proportion of low-income youth who have a preventive dental visit — OH‑09
Getting worse
Increase the proportion of children and adolescents who have dental sealants on 1 or more molars — OH‑10
Getting worse

Public Health Infrastructure

Increase the number of states and DC that have an oral and craniofacial health surveillance system — OH‑D01
Developmental

Other topics you may be interested in

References

1.

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. (2018). Dental Caries (Tooth Decay). Retrieved from https://www.nidcr.nih.gov/research/data-statistics/dental-caries

2.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019) Oral Health Surveillance Report: Trends in Dental Caries and Sealants, Tooth Retention, and Edentulism, United States, 1999–2004 to 2011–2016. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/pdfs_and_other_files/Oral-Health-Surveillance-Report-2019-h.pdf [PDF - 5.3 MB]

3.

The National Academies (2011). Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations. Retrieved from https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/publichealth/clinical/oralhealth/improvingaccess.pdf [PDF - 3.4 MB]

4.

Vujicic M. & Nasseh, K. (2013). A Decade in Dental Care Utilization Among Adults and Children (2001-2010). Health Services Research, 49(2), 460-480. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.12130