Key facts
- Dental caries (also known as tooth decay or dental cavities) is the most common noncommunicable disease worldwide.
- Severe dental caries affects general health and often causes pain and infection, which may result in tooth extraction.
- Dental caries is an expensive disease to treat, consuming 5–10% of healthcare budgets in industrialized countries, and is among the main reasons for hospitalization of children in some high-income countries.
- Free sugars are the essential dietary factor in the development of dental caries. Dental caries develops when bacteria in the mouth metabolize sugars to produce acid that demineralizes the hard tissues of the teeth (enamel and dentine).
- In many countries, sugars-sweetened beverages, including fruit-based and milk-based sweetened drinks and 100% fruit juices, are a primary source of free sugars, as well as confectionery, cakes, biscuits, sweetened cereals, sweet desserts, sucrose, honey, syrups and preserves.
- Limiting free sugars intake to less than 10% of total energy intake – and ideally even further, to less than 5% – minimizes the risk of dental caries throughout the lifecourse.
- Severe dental caries is a frequent cause of absenteeism at school or work. An association between dental caries and undernutrition in children has been reported in some low- and middle-income countries; however, whether this is cause or effect, or both, remains to be determined.
Overview
Dental caries is a major public health problem globally and is the most widespread noncommunicable disease (NCD). It is also the most prevalent condition included in the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, ranking first for decay of permanent teeth (2.3 billion people) and 12th for deciduous teeth (560 million children).
Dental caries can be prevented by avoiding dietary free sugars. Moreover, dental caries is largely preventable through simple and cost-effective population-wide and individual interventions, whereas treatment is costly, and is often unavailable in low- and middle-income countries.
Teeth affected by caries are often extracted (pulled out) when they cause pain or discomfort.
Severe dental caries can impair quality of life, including difficulties in eating and sleeping, and in its advanced stages (abscesses), it may result in pain and chronic systemic infection or adverse growth patterns. Tooth decay is a frequent cause of absence from school or work.
Information presented on this page has been replicated from the linked WHO fact sheet. Please always refer to the original source on who.int for the latest version. Last update: March 2024.
