Oral health: children - trend data (Obvious decay experience)
Trends in no obvious decay experience
Chart 1a [30Kb] shows the percentage of Primary 7 (11-year-old) children in Scotland with no obvious decay experience from 2005 to 2023. In 2023, 81.9% of P7 children had no obvious decay experience, a marked improvement since 2005 (52.9%).
Chart 1b [44Kb] shows the percentage of Primary 1 (5-year-old) children in Scotland with no obvious decay experience from 1988 to 2020. In 2020, 74% of P1 children had no obvious decay experience, a marked improvement since 1988 (42%). Surveys of 5-year-olds provide the most sensitive barometer of change in the oral health of the population.
Number of decayed, missing or filled teeth per child
Chart 2a [27Kb] shows the trend in the mean number of decayed, missing or filled teeth per child (D3MFT) for Primary 7 children in Scotland from 2005 to 2023. There has been a continuing decline (improvement), decreasing from 1.29 in 2005 to 0.36 in 2023.
Chart 2b [49Kb] shows the trend of continuing decline (improvement) in d3mft for Primary 1 children in Scotland, decreasing from 2.76 in 2003 to 1.04 in 2020.
Data sourced from the National Dental Inspection Programme NDIP publications - Primary 7 (2023) 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 was partially remobilised for the academic year 2021/22 and an abbreviated report was published in October 2022.
Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.
