National Snapshot of Oral Health Indicators For the first time since 2007–09, the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) included direct, clinical measures of oral health. Based on indicators collected directly from Canadians between November 2022 and December 2024, these survey findings provide information that is rare in national surveillance: objective, examination-based oral health data rather than selfreported estimates. Direct measures not only sharpen diagnostic accuracy at the population level, they also reveal patterns that may otherwise remain obscured in patient-reported data. “Beyond improving accuracy, direct oral health measures in the CHMS create new opportunities for research by allowing us to link oral health data with broader health indicators, such as cardiovascular markers, and better understand how oral health is connected to overall health,” says Costa Papadopoulos, expert on health policy, research and information at CDA. “Research like Hu et al’s study on the relationship between missing teeth, mortality and hospitalization can only be conducted because direct oral health measures provide robust clinical data that can be linked with other health datasets.” (see “New Study” p. 20) One of the clearest positive outcomes revealed in the CHMS data is the continued decline in edentulism. Among Canadians aged 60 to 79, the proportion with complete tooth loss has dropped dramatically, from 22% in the 2007–09 CHMS, to just 8% in CHMS 2022–24. Overall adult edentulism has also been halved, from 6% to 3%. This shift likely reflects decades of change in clinical philosophy, from extraction-based care toward preservation, as well as improvements in preventive and restorative dentistry. For clinicians, it reinforces a reality already visible in practice: more patients are aging with their natural dentition intact. Across all age groups, the prevalence and severity of caries have remained largely unchanged since the 2007–09 CHMS Cycle 1 results. z Children (6–11): 57% have at least one affected tooth, the same as previous CHMS data. z Youth (12–19): 58% affected, virtually identical to previous survey data. z Adults (20–79): 93% have experienced caries, with an average of 9.7 affected teeth. Recent CHMS results provide national oral health data for the first time in over 15 years. The findings highlight progress alongside persistent gaps that have implications for oral health care access and delivery in Canada. 19 Issue 3 | 2026 |
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