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Division of Oral Health
Mail Stop F-10
4770 Buford Highway NE
Atlanta, GA 30341

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Healthy People 2010: Oral Health Objectives

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 “Oral health is an essential and integral component of health throughout life. No one can be truly healthy unless he or she is free from the burden of oral and craniofacial diseases and conditions.”
Excerpt from the report Healthy People 2010: Oral Health.

On this page:

About Healthy People 2010

Healthy People is the federal government’s agenda to promote health and prevent disease nationwide. Healthy People 2010 identifies the most significant preventable threats to health in this first decade of the 21st century and establishes national goals to reduce these threats.

Healthy People 2010 aims to reach two overarching goals:

  • Increase quality and years of life
  • Eliminate health disparities

More than 460 specific objectives are set in 28 separate focus areas. You can learn more by visiting the Healthy People 2010 Web site.

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Healthy People 2010 Objectives for Oral Health

Seventeen of the Healthy People 2010 objectives relate directly to oral health and a number of others reflect the connection between oral disease and other chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cancer. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), Indian Health Service (IHS), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are the leads for tracking the progress of these objectives.

The overall goal of the Healthy People 2010 oral health objectives is to prevent and control oral and craniofacial diseases, conditions, and injuries and improve access to related services. Like general health, oral health status in the United States tends to vary based on social and economic conditions.
A significant portion of people in the United States have oral diseases and many suffer from oral and facial pain. Learn about dental caries (tooth cavities), oral and pharyngeal (throat) cancers and other oral diseases in Focus Area 21-Oral Health.

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Healthy People 2010 Mid-course Review

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducted a review in 2005 to check the state of the national objectives. Oral health highlights of the review include the following:

  • The portion of children receiving dental sealants on their molars increases between 1988–1994 and 1999–2002. (Objective 21.3)
  • The portion of the U.S. population served by community water fluoridation (fluoridated water) increases from 62 percent to 67 percent. This approaches the national objective of 75 percent. (Objective 21.8)
  • The portion of persons aged 35 to 44 years with no permanent tooth loss increases. This achieves 80 percent of the targeted change. (Objective 21.9)

Get more details from the Mid-course Review. This review includes information related to the progress toward eliminating oral health disparities.

Also learn about the latest progress toward meeting the national fluoridation objective.

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Healthy People 2010 First and Second-Round Progress Reviews

Progress reviews also provide a wealth of information on actions being taken to meet the Healthy People 2010 objectives. The first-round progress review was held in March 2004. It reported that the percentage of oral disease remains very high in the United States and that profound disparities still exist among population groups, in levels of oral disease, and in the number of persons that receive preventive and corrective care.

In February 2008, the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) published the second-round progress review for Healthy People 2010. This review identifies the most serious barrier to further improvements in oral health—difficulty in accessing prevention and treatment services.

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Tracking the Progress of Healthy People 2010

Tools are available to those that wish to learn in detail the nation’s progress towards meeting Healthy People 2010 objectives. Learn about measuring health disparities and get local, state, and national Healthy People 2010 data in Tracking Healthy People 2010. This report includes technical information about general data issues and major data sources. It also provides detailed definitions for each objective, plus additional resources.

DATA2010 is an interactive database system that includes the most recent data monitoring for tracking Healthy People 2010 data. You can find data by specific population group, focus area, and more by visiting the Healthy People 2010 Database.

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Developing healthy people 2020 logo

Looking Ahead to Healthy People 2020

Healthy People 2020 objectives are currently being developed. These will provide a framework to address risk factors and health determinants for the next decade. This framework will address the diseases and disorders that affect communities in the United States. Healthy People 2020, composed of objectives, along with strategies for achieving them, will be launched in 2010.

Healthy People has become a broad-based, public engagement initiative. Thousands of citizens are helping to shape it every step of the way. Learn how you can get involved in developing Healthy People 2020 by clicking on the links below. Your feedback is very important.

Find other ways to get involved and stay informed by visiting the Healthy People 2020 Web site.

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Related Links

Page last reviewed: November 6, 2009
Page last modified:  December 3, 2008
Content source: Division of Oral Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

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