Prevalence of Tooth Decay

You are not the only one who has had cavities.

By the age of 39, 86.7% of the United States population has had at least one tooth affected by decay.

Immunity to Tooth Decay in the United States

Age Group	Average Number of Decayed Missing or Filled Teeth Per Person	Percent of Decayed Missing or Filled Teeth Per 100 teeth, est.	Percent of Age Group Affected by Tooth Decay
2-5	1.01	5.05%	27.9%
6-11	0.42	1.75%	49.0%
12-15	1.75	6.25%	49.6%
16-19	3.25	11.6%	67.9%
20-39	7.07	25.25%	86.7%
40-59	12.85	45.89%	95.1%
60+	17.46	62.36%	93.1%

Data from Centers for Disease Control

For these charts, the third molars (wisdom teeth) were excluded in the data. That means, on average, US adults have even more missing teeth than the figures are presented, since many adults have had their wisdom teeth removed. For ages 2-5 I assumed 20 total teeth, for ages 6-11 I made my averages assuming 24 total teeth, and for ages 12 and older the assumption is 28 total teeth.

What This Chart Means For You

The survey results are averaged from a study of over 16,000 U.S. residents between the years, 1999-2002.

When you look at the column "Percent of Decayed Missing or Filled Teeth Per 100 teeth," you will see that 2-5 year olds for example; have 5.05% of teeth affected by tooth decay. This means if you take all of the 2-5 year old children, and count all of their teeth, how many are healthy, and how many have decay, about 5% of all teeth will have some decay. 27.9% of 2-5 year old children have tooth decay.

Without Proper Nutrition, The Older You Get, The More Decay You Have

What I want to point out to you, is that overall, the older people get, the more and more teeth that they have that are decayed.

What this means for you, is that it is likely your tooth decay will get worse over time, unless you take an active effort to make it better.

If tooth brushing, dental treatments, flossing, and water fluoridation worked to prevent tooth decay, then with age, the prevelance of tooth decay would stay the same or decrease, not increase.

This chart is proof that tooth decay is caused by physical degeneration. The longer you live on a nutrient devoid diet, the more symptoms of physical decay you will have, like cavities.

Don't be another statistic, learn how to be the one who has healthy teeth...