Publication:

Oral health status and oral healthcare system in India: a narrative review

India’s National Oral Health Programme (NOHP) was launched in 2014 to strengthen oral health services, however, a consolidated evaluation of its implementation and progress remains limited. Therefore, we aimed to synthesize evidence on India’s oral disease burden and oral health system progress (NOHP) from 2014 to 2025. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and government websites (August-October 2025). We included all study designs, reports and programme documents (2014-25), excluding non-oral health and non-English/non-full text articles. Data extraction covered major dental conditions, and programme domains were mapped using WHO health-system building blocks. Findings were narratively summarised, NOHP’S funding mapped using QGIS 3.28, and study quality appraised using SANRA checklist. Dental caries prevalence ranged from 19.6% to 94% (mean DMFT/DMFT: 0.4-2.8). Gingivitis affected 46.6% of the population and periodontitis was 51% (≥15 years). Partial edentulism ranged 13.4-100% and the complete edentulism was 5.3-90.5%, with national estimates of 61.9% and 7.2% (≥45 years), respectively. Orofacial clefts occurred at a rate of 0.9 per 1,000 births, with 50-60% of cases being cleft lip and palate. India reported 143,759 new oral cancer cases in 2022 (ASR: 9.9/100,000). Programme improvements included PHC-level dental units, tobacco cessation centres, mobile-dental vans, screening collaborations (NTCP, NP-NCD, RBSK), school dental programmes and dental amalgam phase-down. Despite 3.7 lakh dentists, rural availability remains low (1:25000). Two Centres of Excellence and three National Resource Centres were established, alongside the national oral health policy draft. India has strengthened oral health services (OHS) under NOHP, yet gaps persist in coverage, funding, oral health information management system (OHIMS) and workforce distribution. Stronger primary-care integration, expanding preventive services and unified OHIMS are essential for equitable OHS.