Periodontal disease: the portrait of an epidemic

Background: This article aims to provide updated statistics on worldwide burden of periodontal disease. Methods: An electronic search was carried out in Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) database, using the keywords “periodontal disease”, “metric”, “year”, “sex”, “age” and “location”. Search results were imported into a Microsoft Excel file and elaborated. Results: Incidence, prevalence and disability-adjusted life year (DALYs) of periodontal disease have constantly increased during the past 3 decades, making it the 12th more prevalent pathology around the world. Women have a 13% higher risk of incident and prevalent disease, whilst values of both these epidemiological measures exponentially increase after 19 years of age. The highest burden of periodontal disease is recorded in South-East Asia and Western Pacific, whilst the prevalence is the lowest in Africa. Western Pacific has also displayed the largest increase during the past 3 decades. Conclusions: The current epidemiological estimates of periodontal disease concur to define the portrait of a growing epidemic.