Chapter 2: Epidemiology of Coronal Caries

This chapter summarizes the clinical data on coronal caries distribution and sociodemographic drivers in children, adults, and older people, at a global level. Mapping global caries prevalence showed an extreme variation on the prevalence, revealing still high rates in several countries. The disease is presented in each group as prevalence by age and mean number of affected teeth. Differences in the prevalence of dental caries in developed and developing countries may be due to not only wide variations in the age groups studied but also ethnic, cultural, geographic, and developmental differences, as well as access to dental services, healthcare availability, oral healthcare behaviors, nutritional habits, and lifestyles. The prevalence of caries in children and adults showed a decreasing trend in Western countries, notwithstanding the distribution of the disease is highly skewed linked to individual and community determinants. In older persons, a high caries prevalence up to 98% has been reported, with a very heterogeneous distribution among and within countries. Although still highly prevalent, a declining trend for tooth loss was observed. The patterns of the association between sociodemographic indicators and caries data indicate the need of a reform of the global oral healthcare system considering all the life course and caries inequalities. Further needs are related to the production of primary data on oral health to provide support to policymakers to create the national oral healthcare policies guided by epidemiology-based models of care.