Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Oral disease, a major health problem in all countries: WHO official

EXPRESSING CONCERN: National Consultant (Oral Health) for WHO Kumar Rajan speaking at a dental education programme in Gulbarga on Saturday.

GULBARGA: Oral disease continues to be one of the major health problems both in developed and developing countries, according to Kumar Rajan, National Consultant (Oral Health), World Health Organisation.

He was speaking at a continuing dental education programme on “Global perspective of oral health and Indian scenario” at the S. Nijalingappa Institute of Dental Sciences and Research here on Saturday.

He said the most common among oral diseases were dental caries, periodontal disease, tooth loss, oral mucosal lesions, oro-dental trauma, oro-pharyngeal cancers and HIV/AIDS-related oral disease.

About 60 to 90 per cent of schoolchildren were affected by oral disease globally and the prevalence rate among adults was as high as 90 to 100 per cent in most countries. He said that the global prevalence of oral disease was as high as 90 to 95 per cent according to the Community Periodontal Index Databank, which was updated recently.

Pre-cancerous lesions and oro-pharyngeal cancers were a cause for concern though both could be prevented. Dr. Rajan said that oral cancer was high among men and stood eighth among the most common cancers in the world.

Prevalence of oral cancer varied from 1 to 10 cases per lakh population in several countries, he said and added that in countries such as India and Thailand, the prevalence rate was 12.6 per lakh population and 4.6 per lakh population respectively.

However, it was only 0.7 per lakh population in China.

He said that the major risk factors for oral disease were poor living conditions, lack of awareness, unhealthy lifestyle, including use of tobacco and consumption of alcohol, poor diet and nutrition, excessive intake of sugar and limited availability of and accessibility to basic oral health services.

Dr. Rajan said that the WHO had come out with an action plan for continuous oral health improvement, which included oral health improvement among the aged, integration of oral health with national and community health programmes, strengthening prevention of HIV/AIDS-related oral disease and research in oral health.

Dr. Jayashree Mudda, principal of the institute, and Dr. Gurulingappa, governing council member, Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society, spoke.

Shivanand Mankar, joint secretary, Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society, and R.C. Dhotre and Sanganna Kollur, members of the general council, were present.

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