The latest study was conducted by Kent Express, the UK’s leading mail order dental supplier.

Qatar has topped the list of the oral health league table thanks to its advanced dental health and promising statistics, a new study by Kent Express, the UK’s leading mail order dental supplier, has found.

On a new index detailing the dental health of more than 178 countries, the Gulf nation secured the highest rank of the most ‘teeth conscious’ country, followed shortly by neighbouring Oman and Japan.

The dental supplier said that Doha earned the ranking given its low sugar consumption rates, low proportion of people smoking, and a large number of dentists at the community’s disposal.

HOW WAS IT MEASURED?

To calculate the oral health index, UK dental supplier has examined the number of dentists per 10,000 people, sugar consumption, the prevalence of tobacco use (% per adult), and the average number of dentist visits per person each year.

“We compiled a list of the top 20 countries for dental care after analysing a complete global ranking list of the most teeth-conscious countries,” Kent said in the survey.

“A combination of all this data gave us a teeth-conscious score out of 100, indicating which countries place the most importance on their dental health.”

Each factor contributed a score to a country’s overall ranking, Kent added. The nation with the highest score was considered the most teeth-conscious country, while the lowest scoring country was considered the least teeth-conscious nation.

Per statistics, Qatar scored 80.8 points as the most teeth-conscious country, with 6.2 dentists per 10,000 people in the country. If compared to Oman, which has 3.0, the number is almost double.

Japan, however, came top in this area, with Norway and Luxembourg also included in the top five countries with the most dentists available.

Sugar consumption in Doha was also recorded to be low, with people using only 607 teaspoons of sugar a year.

However, second place Oman still consumes over three times the amount of sugar per year compared to Qatar. Norway, which was previously praised for its preventative approach to dental care, consumes nearly 10 times the amount of sugar per capita.

The United Kingdom ranked 68th on the index, only seven places above the USA, which is renowned for its sugary diet. 

“For many people, dental hygiene slipped during Covid-19 lockdowns, partly because NHS dentists weren’t accessible for non-emergency treatments. A huge backlog of appointments has built up nationally, and has led many to consider private treatment or even treatment abroad,” said Chris Moffatt, a dental expert at Kent Express.

As the Gulf nation continues to develop its healthcare system within the framework of its National Health Strategy 2018-2022, statistics continue to show the efforts of the National Oral and Dental Health Committee in providing comprehensive dental and oral healthcare.   

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