How your toothache can make the Indian economy lose its bite

As the world observes Oral Health Day on March 20, lack of dental health isn't just impacting an individual's well-being, but also the economy's, which loses precious hours of productivity to bad dental hygiene and health.Indian and Chinese economies have the highest number of years lost due to tooth decay & periodontal disease - five times as much as what the US economy loses.

95% of India's population suffers from gum disease, 50% don't brush their teeth twice a day & just 2% visit a dentist regularly - enough to cause a headache over a toothache.What's worse is that the problem of bad teeth is setting in early, even before a person enters his or her teenage years - with an average 12-year-old in India having almost 4 decayed teeth, missing or filled, which is the highest in the world.

Part of the problem is the expense needed for good dental healthcare, with the poorest Indian having to save 2 days of household expenses in order to buy a toothpaste.

If the relatively higher cost of toothpaste for India's poorest wasn't bad enough, India's availability of dentists is less than one-tenth that of the US and among the lowest in the world.

Low availability of dentists means less than half of people with dental problems in India have access to a dentist.