A new study shows a 20 percent sugar tax could add years to human life and prevent millions of tooth cavities.
Griffith University researchers say the tax could prevent 3.7 million cases of tooth decay, 191,000 cases of gum disease and 115,000 cases of complete tooth loss.
It could also generate around 500,000 “health-adjusted life years for the 2019 Australian population over their lifetime”.
This would be through improved dental health and reductions in weight-related illness.
Professor Lennert Veerman from Griffith’s School of Medicine and Dentistry said a sugar tax could significantly improve the oral health of Australians.
He said oral diseases affected about 3.5 billion people globally and nearly 32 percent of Australians adults had untreated cases of tooth decay.
Men were particularly at risk because they consumed more sugary drinks and had higher baseline levels of some oral diseases.
Adjunct Research Fellow Mishel Shahid said this was the first Australian study to quantify the impacts of a sugar tax beyond tooth decay.
“Previous modelling examined dental caries, but this study also encompassed periodontitis and edentulism, commonly known as complete tooth loss, which add significantly to the overall impact of the tax,” she said.
Professor Marco Peres from SingHealth Duke-NUS in Singapore said the findings reinforced the importance of considering oral health when assessing the broader benefits of policies targeting sugar consumption.
“Importantly, a sugar tax is a population-level measure,” he said.
“It does not rely solely on individuals changing their behaviour, but helps create an environment in which healthier choices become easier.”
The paper Impact of a sugar sweetened beverage tax on dental caries, periodontitis and edentulism in Australia: A modelling study is published in BMJ Public Health.
