If you’re middle-aged and recognize the need to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, you might want to thank Health Canada’s Nutrition Canada Survey. Conducted from 1970-1972, it gathered data that contributed to an updated Canada’s Food Guide.
But the research did more than that. It also offered insights into the molars, canines, and incisors that tear into such food. Fifty-two percent of Canadians over 60 were edentulous, having lost all their natural teeth, at the time the survey was completed.
It wasn’t the only troubling gap to emerge.
Originally meant to be repeated, the survey itself was canceled. Canada lacked national data about the state of oral health for decades.
Researchers sounded the alarm. “Canada’s national and provincial data for many oral and craniofacial diseases and conditions, and for special population groups, are limited or nonexistent— a situation that must be addressed,” University of Toronto dentistry faculty members Herenia P. Lawrence and James L. Leake wrote in a 2001 paper published by the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association. It drew insights from the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on oral health, emphasizing the need for data and a comprehensive overview of what’s happening in Canada to make oral health an “integral component” of general health.
“Canada is now comparing well with other countries in surveying Canadians’ oral health.” — the Canadian Dental Association.
National oral health data returns
Provinces conducted some of their own surveys, but results were difficult or impossible to compare. Even when Ontario validated its oral health survey in the summer of 2018, the public couldn’t access datasets due to privacy clauses protecting children, for example.
However, after a gap of more than 30 years, changes began to occur at the national level. The Chief Dental Officer of Canada position was created in 2005. Statistics Canada began to conduct the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) in 2007. And by 2009, national oral health metrics were tracked once again.
“It was serendipity. The CHMS took a long time due to the pandemic, so it happened to take place just before the launch of the CDCP.” — Dr. Paul Allison
“Canada is now comparing well with other countries in surveying Canadians’ oral health,” the Canadian Dental Association told Oral Health Group in a written statement.
Each Canada Health Measures Survey collects health information from a nationally representative sample population of about 5,700 Canadians, aged three to 79 years old. But oral health data was only collected in the 2007-08 and 2022-24 surveys. (The survey ‘cycles’ are completed every two years.)
“Only [then] did they collect oral health data, meaning clinical exams of the mouth and teeth, and there were questions in the questionnaire about oral health,” says Paul Allison, a professor at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences at McGill University.
Allison, principal investigator working with a team of researchers from 10 dental schools in Canada, received a $3.3 million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to collaborate with Statistics Canada’s existing CHMS to gather data and address oral health-related knowledge gaps.
Biological indicators were even collected to paint a picture of inflammation.
“They also collected saliva, which is directly related to oral health. They also collected blood and urine, as well as water samples from where people live to measure fluoride levels,” Allison adds. And with the second dataset in hand, changes in Canadians’ dental health can finally be compared.
A baseline to track CDCP results
The most recent survey — completed last December, with results to be released in early 2026 — is particularly significant. It will serve as a baseline for tracking any changes that occur under the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP), even though that wasn’t a goal when the latest survey was conducted.
“The federal government, which is Statistics Canada, was not involved in oral health care, except for the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program for First Nations peoples and a few other small groups like the armed forces and prisoners,” Allison says, referring to the period when the latest data was collected. “They weren’t interested in collecting oral health data because they weren’t doing anything about it.”
“It was serendipity. The CHMS took a long time due to the pandemic, so it happened to take place just before the launch of the CDCP.”
As spring nears, Allison hopes that coming Canadian Health Measures Survey’s study cycles will gather oral health data as well.
“Because they’re investing so much in the CDCP, I hope they include detailed clinical biological measures of oral health,” he says. “That way, in a few years, we’ll have much more detailed information, allowing us to make comparisons.”
—–
This is part one of our two-story series. “Does oral health data lead to public health funding?” will be published next week.
