Oral Health Problems Are Common and Painful

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• Tooth decay affects more than one-fourth of U.S. children aged 2–5 and half of those aged 12–15. About half of all children and two-thirds of children aged 12–19 from low-income families have had decay.
• Children and adolescents of some racial and ethnic groups and those from lower-income families have more untreated decay. For example, 40% of Mexican American children aged 6–8 have untreated decay, compared with 25% of non-Hispanic whites. Twenty percent of all adolescents aged 12–19 years currently have untreated tooth decay.
• Advanced gum disease affects 4%–12% of adults. Half of the cases of severe gum disease in the United States are the result of cigarette smoking. Three times as many smokers have gum disease as people who have never smoked.
• One-fourth of U.S. adults aged 65 and older have lost all of their teeth.
• More than 7,600 people, mostly older Americans, die from oral and pharyngeal cancers each year. This year, about 35,000 new cases of oral cancer will be diagnosed.
• Find a Phoenix dentist for your family.