Cavities are not new since anthropologists have discovered that hprehistoric men suffered from it already. Fortunately, since that distant time oral hygiene has made a lot of progress. Yet a third of the world’s population (ie 2.4 billion people) still lives today with untreated cavities. A very worrying figure for dental health specialists because cavities can degenerate and cause abscesses, infections and other oral diseases.
In a study published in the professional journal Journal of Dental Research, experts find it “alarming that the prevention and treatment of dental caries has been neglected globally”. The latter conducted a global survey including 378 studies conducted between 1990 and 2010 and involving nearly 5 million people. The results show that 2.4 billion people suffer from untreated dental caries on their permanent teeth and 621 million children on their baby teeth. “In addition to the diseases they cause, untreated caries can be a cause of absenteeism at work for adults and can slow the growth of children” insists Dr Wagner Marcenes, professor at University College London and main author of the study.
Scientists attribute the development of dental caries to high sugar consumption. They thus join the conclusions of the World Health Organization (WHO) which recommends reducing our sugar consumption so that it does not exceed 10% of our energy intake daily. “What is clear is that it is a major public health problem,” they insist.
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