High Prevalence of Dental Diseases While Low Rate of Dental Treatment in China

The World Health Organization (WHO) lists dental health as one of the top ten criteria for human health.
For a long time, the prevalence of dental diseases in China has been very high, and almost everyone has different degrees of dental disease problems, but on the contrary, the dental treatment rate is very low, especially China's children, while the elderly have a very high rate of dental caries.
   The rate of permanent dental caries among 12-year-olds is 34.5%, 7.8% higher than a decade ago. The rate of deciduous tooth caries among 5-year-olds is 70.9%, 5.8% higher than a decade ago. The situation of children's caries has shown an upward trend.
Among residents aged 35-44 years, the detection rate of oral calculus is 96.7%, and the detection rate of gingival bleeding is 87.4%, which increases by 10.1%, compared with that of 10 years ago. In sharp contrast to the high prevalence rate, the current treatment rate of patients with dental diseases in China is relatively low. The proportion of caries treated with fillings among 5-year-olds is 4.1%. The proportion of caries treated with fillings among children aged 12 is 16.5%.
Among the elderly aged from 65 years to 74 years, the number of remaining teeth is 22.5 and the proportion of total toothless mouth 4.5%, and the repair proportion of missing teeth is 63.2%.