On World Oral Health Day which fell on Monday, WHO urge Southeast Asian countries to accelerate implementation of the region's new Action Plan for Oral Health 2022–2030, which aims to ensure that everyone, everywhere in Southeast Asia can enjoy the highest attainable state of oral health, with a focus on achieving universal coverage for oral health by 2030.
Globally, oral diseases affect an estimated 3.5 billion people worldwide. Between 1990 and 2019, estimated case numbers of oral diseases increased by more than 1 billion, which translates to a 50% increase, higher than the population increase of about 45% in the same period. Oral diseases are caused by a range of modifiable risk factors common to many non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including sugar consumption, tobacco use, alcohol use and poor hygiene, and their underlying social and commercial determinants.
