This article gives an overview of the societal and economic aspects of periodontitis and periodontal care. Despite its largely preventable nature, periodontitis is highly prevalent worldwide and imposes a substantial health and economic burden on individuals and society as a whole. The worldwide estimated direct treatment costs and productivity losses due to periodontitis (including for periodontitis‐related tooth loss) amounted to US$ 186 billion and US$ 142 billion in 2019, respectively. The burden of periodontitis is particularly evident in low and disadvantaged populations. Smoking, dietary habits, and presence of systemic diseases along with social and commercial determinants are considered as risk factors for the periodontal diseases. The cost‐effectiveness of preventing and managing periodontitis has been explored in several studies but it has been highlighted that there is scope for improvement in defining the methodology and quality of reporting of such studies. A recent report by The Economist Intelligence Unit examined the cost‐effectiveness of interventions to prevent and manage periodontal diseases, suggesting that prevention of periodontitis through prevention of gingivitis by means of individual home care would be more cost‐efficient than four other examined approaches. Future research in this field is recommended to further decipher the economic burden of periodontitis to society and to assess the value for money of alternative approaches to address periodontitis with particular emphasis on public health preventive strategies and intersectoral care approaches that address the common risk factors of periodontitis and other non‐communicable diseases simultaneously.

中文翻译：

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预防和管理牙周炎的物有所值：机遇与挑战


本文概述了牙周炎和牙周护理的社会和经济方面。尽管牙周炎在很大程度上是可以预防的，但它在世界范围内非常普遍，给个人和整个社会带来了巨大的健康和经济负担。 2019 年，全球估计因牙周炎（包括牙周炎相关牙齿脱落）造成的直接治疗费用和生产力损失分别达 1860 亿美元和 1420 亿美元。牙周炎的负担在低收入和弱势群体中尤其明显。吸烟、饮食习惯、全身性疾病以及社会和商业决定因素被认为是牙周病的危险因素。多项研究已经探讨了预防和管理牙周炎的成本效益，但人们强调，在定义此类研究的方法和报告质量方面还有改进的余地。经济学人智库最近的一份报告研究了预防和管理牙周病干预措施的成本效益，表明通过个人家庭护理预防牙龈炎来预防牙周炎比其他四种检查方法更具成本效益。建议该领域的未来研究进一步阐明牙周炎给社会带来的经济负担，并评估解决牙周炎的替代方法的性价比，特别强调公共卫生预防策略和解决牙周炎常见风险因素的部门间护理方法和其他非传染性疾病同时发生。