Home › Data & research
Oral disease trends
Key numbers from the World Health Organization and Finland's THL. Each number names its source.
Worldwide (WHO fact sheet)
- Oral diseases affect nearly 3.7 billion people.
- Untreated tooth decay in adult teeth is the most common health condition (Global Burden of Disease 2021).
- Severe gum disease is estimated at more than 1 billion cases.
- About 7% of people aged 20 or over have lost all their teeth. For people aged 60 or over, it is about 23%.
- Lip and mouth cancers: about 389,846 new cases and 188,438 deaths in 2022.
- WHO says oral diseases are increasing worldwide, linked to low fluoride use, sugary food and poor access to care.
Finland (THL, data for 2025)
- About 2.3 million adults used oral primary care services.
- About 24% of adults had a dental exam or check-up.
- Legally required oral health check-ups reached 79% of children of child-health-clinic age and 75% of school-age children.
We will add trend charts only where the source gives data over time. Our existing dashboards are on the Data page.
Related: Methods · Source datasets
Sources
Paraphrased in plain words. Links checked and accessed 21 Oct 2026.
- World Health Organization. “Oral health – fact sheet”. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/oral-health (accessed 21 Oct 2026).
- THL – Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. “Suun ja hampaiden sairaudet (oral and dental diseases data)”. https://thl.fi/data-ja-tilastot/sairaudet-ja-hoidon-laatu/suun-ja-hampaiden-sairaudet (accessed 21 Oct 2026).