Preventing Dental Caries in Indonesia: A Scoping Review of Policies and National Initiatives

Dental caries remains a significant public health issue in Indonesia, with high prevalence across age groups and ongoing disparities in access to preventive care. While national initiatives such as the 'Caries-Free Indonesia by 2030' goal signal increasing political attention, the effectiveness and equity of current oral health strategies remain uncertain.

This scoping review aims to assess the policy direction and documented effectiveness of Indonesia's national-level caries prevention programmes through a review of government policy documents and relevant literature.

This scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A systematic search was conducted through PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar, and supplemented by government policy documents. Studies were included if they focused on oral health policy or national caries prevention programmes in Indonesia and were published in English or Indonesian. Exclusion criteria included reviews, commentaries, clinical treatment-focused studies and articles without full text or policy relevance. In total, 32 articles were included in this study.

Indonesia's oral health policy framework has evolved toward greater integration and equity, reflected in expanded target populations and alignment with WHO's life-course approach. However, implementation remains fragmented due to inconsistent implementation, workforce shortages, inadequate funding and weak evaluation. The School Dental Health Program (UKGS) demonstrates inconsistent outcomes across provinces and lacks a robust data system for monitoring. Community-based initiatives, such as Posyandu and integrated antenatal care (iANC), show promise but are limited in scale and evaluation. Preventive efforts are underfunded under the UHC scheme, while curative services dominate. Additionally, the absence of a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax and poor integration of oral health into national surveillance systems hinders upstream and system-wide interventions.

Despite policy advancements, Indonesia's oral health policies and national-level programmes face some barriers that limit programme effectiveness. Strengthening data systems, rebalancing health financing toward prevention, implementing fiscal measures and formalising multi-sectoral coordination are essential to support sustainable oral health improvements.