Big Sugar and Neglect by Global Health Community Fuel Oral Health Crisis

Oral diseases present a major global public health burden, affecting 3.5 billion people worldwide, yet oral health has been largely ignored by the global health community, according to a new Lancet Series on Oral Health.
Oral conditions share common risk factors with other non-communicable diseases, which include free sugar consumption, tobacco use, and harmful alcohol consumption, as well as the wider social and commercial determinants of health. The burden of oral diseases is on course to rise as more people are exposed to the underlying risk factors of oral diseases, including sugar, tobacco and alcohol. Dental care systems should focus more on promoting and maintaining oral health and achieving greater oral health equity. Sugar, alcohol, and tobacco consumption, and their underlying social and commercial determinants, are common risk factors shared with a range of other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Coherent and comprehensive regulation and legislation are needed to tackle these shared risk factors…