Oral Health | Clinical and Risk Asessment | Changing patterns of oral health and disease

Changing patterns of oral health and disease
Session overview
Description
This session covers the evolving pattern of oral health and diseases within the UK population. We will examine how these have changed over the years, the variation within society of oral disease and non-clinical measures of oral health.

Learning objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• describe how oral health and diseases have changed
• describe the variation within society of oral disease
• identify non-clinical measures of oral health

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should:

• be aware of the different types of dental indices
• be able to explain how socio-economic variation within society is assessed

This session deals with how the distribution of the major oral diseases has changed within society over the last 30 years or so.

It is important to understand this, as the career of a dentist is about 40 years. While historical data does not allow the future to be predicted, it can give an insight into what it might look like.

For example, if the number of people losing all their teeth decreases and people live longer, it suggests that there will be a greater set of dental problems in the future.

The data presented in this session covers:

• adults

-tooth loss (toothlessness)

• children

-dental caries experience
-periodontal disease (pocket depth)

• non-clinical problems