Oral health: key points

Two aspects of oral health are considered here: obvious decay experience in children (decayed, missing or filled teeth) and prevalence of natural teeth in adults.

Children's oral health

In 2023, 81.9% of Primary 7 (P7) children in Scotland were found to have no obvious decay experience in their permanent teeth, a large improvement since 2005 (52.9%). Similarly, the percentage of Primary 1 (P1) children with no obvious decay experience in their primary teeth increased from 45% in 2003 when the National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) commenced, to 73.2% in 2022.

Dental disease inequalities remain, with children from the most socio-economically deprived backgrounds having the highest levels of decay experience. In 2023, the percentage of P7 children with no obvious decay experience ranged from 66.1% for children in the most deprived quintile (SIMD1), to 85.4% for those in the least deprived quintile (SIMD5). The absolute inequality between SIMD1 and SIMD5 was therefore 19.3%. This has increased (worsened) from 16.1% in 2023 and 18.6% in 2019 and a slight improvement from 20.9% in 2017. In 2024, the percentage of P1 children with no obvious decay experience ranged from 60.1% (SIMD1) to 83.6% (SIMD5), the absolute inequality was therefore 23.5 percentage points in 2024, this is a 5.3 percentage point decline (improvement) from 28.8 in 2020.

Data sourced from the National Dental Inspection Programme NDIP publications - Primary 7 (2024) and Primary 1 (2024). PHS did not publish an NDIP report in 2021 as the programme was paused in March 2020 and did not take place in the academic year 2020/21. NDIP partially remobilised for the academic year 2021/22 and an abbreviated report was published in October 2022.

Adults' oral health

The oral health of adults in Scotland has improved markedly over the last 40 years. The trend is likely to continue into the future, with fewer adults having no natural teeth and more adults retaining more teeth into their older years. In 2022, 94% of adults reported that they had at least some of their own natural teeth.

NB: Dental data is only included in the Scottish Health Survey biannually.
This trend appears to be supported by data produced in the Scottish Adult Oral Health Survey (SAOHS). This showed 96% of those surveyed had at least one natural tooth.

(Data sourced from the Scottish Health Survey publication and SAOHS)

Section updates:

The last major update of this section was completed in December 2024.
The next major update is due to be carried out by end December 2025.