Oral Health Trends and Territorial Inequalities Among Older Adults in Brazil: Comparative Secondary Analysis of SB Brasil 2010 and 2023

Oral diseases in later life reflect cumulative biological, social, and health-system exposures. This documentary, descriptive, comparative secondary analysis used published aggregate estimates from SB Brasil 2010 and SB Brasil 2023, two nationwide cross-sectional oral-health surveys conducted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Official survey reports were the quantitative data sources, while a structured narrative review of PubMed, SciELO, LILACS, and Ministry of Health documents was used only for contextual interpretation. Published estimates for adults aged 65–74 years were extracted and harmonized across survey editions and compared descriptively using means, percentages, absolute and relative changes, territorial ranges, and, where available in the official reports, 95% confidence intervals; no individual-level records or statistically pooled study-level effect estimates were analyzed. The national mean DMFT declined from 27.53 in 2010 to 23.55 in 2023. At the national level, the mean missing-teeth component declined from 25.29 (91.9% of DMFT) to 19.86 (84.32%), whereas the restored-without-caries component increased from 1.62 to 2.78. Poor self-perceived oral health declined from 25.2% to 10.9%, while positive ratings remained nearly unchanged (52.6% vs. 52.7%). In 2023, untreated caries ranged from 44.27% in Maranhão (95% CI 34.85–53.70) to 19.07% in Santa Catarina (95% CI 12.00–26.14). These findings document temporal improvement together with geographic heterogeneity. Structural-vulnerability mechanisms and implications for underserved populations are interpreted from the previous literature and were not directly tested in the present aggregate analysis.