The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report, the “2024 Oral Health Surveillance Report: Dental Caries, Tooth Retention, and Edentulism, United States, 2018-March 2020.”
This report used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to provide national estimates for the prevalence and severity of dental caries in primary and permanent teeth for individuals 2 years or older and for tooth retention in adults age 20 years or older. Among the findings, the report found that half of children ages 6 to 9 have had cavities in their primary or permanent teeth. More than 1 in 7 adults ages 65 and older have lost all of their teeth.