Number of Cavities in Low-Income Children More Than Twice That of High-Income Children... 'Wealth Gap' in Dental Health Too

2021~2022 Child Oral Health Status Survey

Children from low-income households were found to have more than twice the number of untreated cavities compared to children from high-income households.

According to the "2021?2022 Child Oral Health Survey" report by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on the 3rd, among the 18,671 surveyed 12-year-old children, 58.4% had experienced permanent tooth decay (cavities) at least once, and 6.9% currently had untreated cavities.

The average number of untreated cavities per child was 0.12, with a clear difference depending on income level.

Children from households with a self-reported income level of "high" had an average of 0.09 untreated permanent tooth cavities per child.

In contrast, children from "low" income households had 2.5 times more cavities, averaging 0.23 untreated cavities per child.

The proportion of children currently with cavities was also more than twice as high in the "low" income group at 12.4%, compared to 5.6% in the "high" group.

Differences by income level were also observed in dental care utilization among 12-year-old children.

The percentage of children who received dental treatment in the past year was 65.2% for the "high" income group, 58.1% for the "middle," and 52.4% for the "low" income group.

Conversely, when asked whether they thought they needed dental treatment in the past year but did not receive it, 29.3% of children in the "low" income group answered "yes," the highest rate, followed by 18.5% in the "middle" and 15.3% in the "high" groups.

The response rate citing economic reasons for not visiting the dentist was 9.1% in the "low" group, which is ten times higher than the 0.9% in the "high" group.

Children from lower-income households were found to brush their teeth less frequently and consume cariogenic snacks such as candy and caramel more often.

The Disease Control and Prevention Agency analyzed in the report that "children who self-reported their income level as 'low' are less proactive in health behaviors to prevent oral diseases and are more exposed to risk factors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.