As described in the Introduction, oral health can impact an individual’s general health and wellbeing. Good oral functioning enables comfortable participation in everyday activities.
Key terms
- Dentate: Having one or more natural teeth.
- Edentulous: A state of complete loss of all natural teeth.
- Incidence: The number of new cases (of an illness or injury) occurring during a given period.
- Burden of disease (and injury): The quantified impact of a disease or injury on a population, using the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) measure. Referred to as the ‘burden’ of the disease or injury in this report.
- DALY (disability-adjusted life years): Measure (in years) of healthy life lost, either through premature death defined as dying before the expected life span at the age of death (YLL) or, equivalently, through living with ill health due to illness or injury (YLD).
- Fatal burden: The burden from dying ‘prematurely’ as measured by years of life lost. Often used synonymously with YLL, and also referred to as ‘life lost’.
- YLL (years of life lost): Years of life lost due to premature death, defined as dying before the ideal life span at the age of death. YLL represent fatal burden.
- Non-fatal burden: The burden from living with ill health as measured by years lived with disability. Often used synonymously with YLD, and also referred to as ‘health lost’.
- YLD (years lived with disability): A measure of the years of what could have been healthy but were instead spent in states of less than full health. YLD represent non-fatal burden.
- International Classification of Diseases (ICD): The World Health Organization’s internationally accepted classification of diseases and related health conditions. The tenth revision, Australian modification (ICD-10-AM) is currently in use in Australian hospitals for admitted patients.
- Relative survival: The ratio of observed survival of a group of persons diagnosed with cancer to expected survival of those in the corresponding general population after a specified interval following diagnosis (such as, 5 or 10 years).
Social impacts of poor oral health
Measures of social impact give insight into the effect of oral conditions on day-to-day living from the individual’s perspective. Experience of social impact reflects not only the level of oral disease experienced, but also whether that disease had been treated in a timely fashion. The following data were sourced from the National Study of Adult Oral Health 2017–18 in which people are asked about their experience of toothache, how they feel about their dental appearance and whether or not they avoid eating certain foods (Brennan et al 2019).
Experience of toothache
Around 1 in 5 (20%) dentate adults aged 15 years and over had experienced toothache in the previous 12 months.
The proportion of adults aged 15 years and over who experienced toothache in the previous 12 months was:
- higher for Indigenous Australians (35%) than non-Indigenous Australians (20%)
- higher for those eligible for public dental care (26%) than those ineligible for public dental care (18%)
- higher for those who usually visit the dentist for a problem (34%) than those who usually visit for a check-up (12%)
- lower for people with dental insurance (15%) than those without dental insurance (26%).
Uncomfortable with dental appearance
Around 1 in 3 (35%) dentate adults aged 15 years and over had felt uncomfortable about their dental appearance in the previous 12 months.
The proportion of adults aged 15 years and over who had felt uncomfortable about their dental appearance in the previous 12 months was:
- lower for males (32%) than females (38%)
- higher for Indigenous Australians (45%) than non-Indigenous Australians (35%)
- higher for dentate adults (36%) than edentulous adults (29%)
- higher for those who usually visit the dentist for a problem (49%) than those who usually visit for a check-up (28%)
- higher for those eligible for public dental care (40%) than those ineligible for public dental care (33%)
- lower for people with dental insurance (30%) than those without dental insurance (41%).
Food avoidance
Around 1 in 4 (24%) dentate adults aged 15 years and over had avoided eating certain foods in the previous 12 months due to problems with their teeth.
The proportion of adults aged 15 years and over who had avoided eating certain foods in the previous 12 months due to problems with their teeth was:
- lower for males (20%) than females (27%)
- higher for edentulous adults (43%) than dentate adults (23%)
- higher for Indigenous Australians (36%) than non-Indigenous Australians (23%)
- higher for those eligible for public dental care (33%) than those ineligible for public dental care (20%)
- lower for people with dental insurance (17%) than those without dental insurance (31%)
- higher for those with Year 10 or less schooling (29%) than those with Year 11 or more (21%).
Perception of fair or poor oral health
Around 1 in 4 (24%) dentate adults aged 15 years and over rated their oral health as fair or poor.
The proportion of adults aged 15 years and over who rated their oral health as fair or poor was:
- lower for females (23%) than males (25%)
- higher for Indigenous Australians (29%) than non-Indigenous Australians (24%)
- higher for those eligible for public dental care (32%) than those ineligible for public dental care (21%)
- lower for people with dental insurance (16%) than those without dental insurance (33%)
- higher for those with Year 10 or less schooling (30%) than those with Year 11 or more (22%)
- higher for those who usually visit the dentist for a problem (44%) than those who usually visit for a check-up (13%).