title: Global burden of oral diseases: emerging concepts, management and interplay with systemic health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study presents the global burden of major oral diseases with an exegetical commentary on their current profiles, the critical issues in oral healthcare and future perspectives.
  
  
  METHODS
  A narrative overview of current literature was undertaken to synthesise the contexts with critical elaboration and commentary.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Oral disease is one of the most common public health issues worldwide with significant socio-economic impacts, and yet it is frequently neglected in public health policy. The oral data extracted from the Global Burden of Disease Study in 2010 (Murray et al, 2012) show that caries, periodontal disease, edentulism, oral cancer and cleft lip/palate collectively accounted for 18 814 000 disability-adjusted life-years; and the global burden of periodontal disease, oral cancer and caries increased markedly by an average of 45.6% from 1990 to 2010 in parallel with the major non-communicable diseases like diabetes by 69.0%. Oral diseases and non-communicable diseases are closely interlinked through sharing common risk factors (e.g. excess sugar consumption and tobacco use) and underlying infection/inflammatory pathways.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Oral disease remains a major public health burden worldwide. It is of great importance to integrate oral health into global health agenda via the common risk factor approach. The long-term sustainable strategy for global oral health should focus on health promotion and disease prevention through effective multidisciplinary teamwork.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. ljjin@hku.hk.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: I B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Lamster
authors.affiliation: Department of Orofacial Sciences, School of Dentistry at University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Greenspan
authors.affiliation: Dental Innovation and Translation Centre, King's College London Dental Institute, London, UK.
authors.forename: N B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Pitts
authors.affiliation: WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Health-General Health; and University College, London, UK.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scully
authors.affiliation: King's College London Dental Institute, and WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Cancer, London, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Warnakulasuriya
mesh_terms: D017281:Cost of Illness; D006801:Humans; D009059:Mouth Diseases; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: caries; cleft lip/palate; common risk factors approach; disease burden; edentulism; non-communicable diseases; oral cancer; oral diseases; oral mucosal diseases; periodontal disease