Oral Health and the SDGs: Unlocking Missed Potential for Global Health Gains

Oral health is a crucial yet neglected aspect of the global health and development agenda. Although oral diseases affect almost half of the world's population, they receive little attention and public investment by policymakers, undermining progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The study aimed to 1) analyse the SDG framework through an oral health lens, identifying links across goals and targets, and 2) quantify the reduction in oral disease burden required by 2030 under a counterfactual status quo projection and 2 policy benchmark scenarios: one-third reduction of noncommunicable disease prevalence aligned with SDG target and 10% reduction based on the World Health Organization Global Oral Health Strategy & Action Plan (GOHAP) target.

A systematic content analysis was conducted on the UN resolution "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." Linkages were categorised across 4 dimensions: disease burden, determinants, system integration, and policy alignment. The Global Burden of Disease data were used to model a counterfactual status quo projection using the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) (2015-2019), disaggregated by World Bank income groups. "Improvement ambition," representing potential preventable disease burden, was calculated as the difference between the status quo projection and each target.

Oral health was directly or indirectly linked to all 17 SDGs and 37 of 169 SDG targets, particularly SDGs 3, 4, 6, and 10. Achieving the SDG-aligned target could avert 981 and 649 million cases of caries of permanent teeth and periodontal disease, respectively, by 2030. Even with the GOHAP target of a 10% reduction, 373 and 272 million cases could be averted, respectively.

Oral health is linked to the SDGs through shared risk factors and determinants with implications for equity and global development. The "improvement ambition" metric provides a practical tool for policymakers to benchmark progress and guide investments during this decisive decade.Knowledge Transfer Statement:Integrating oral health into SDG-aligned policy could avert up to 981 million cases of permanent caries and 649 million cases of periodontal disease by 2030. Even achieving the WHO Global Oral Health Action Plan target would prevent hundreds of millions of cases globally. Our "improvement ambition" metric helps policymakers and researchers benchmark progress toward Universal Health Coverage, noncommunicable disease prevention, and health equity, highlighting that excluding oral health results in losses in health, productivity, and social progress.