Report of the New South Wales Chief Health Officer, 1997

Graphic: Dental Health - decay-free twelve-year-old children

Category 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Mean DMFT scores 1.4 1.4 1.2 2.1 1.8 1.2 1.2 1 1.1 0.9 1
Decay free rates (%) 36.7 39.3 39.1 39.8 40.4 46.2 48 48.5 49.2 55.7 56.8

Note: Data from 1996 not directly comparable with other years. Mean DMFT score = mean number of decayed missing or filled primary and secondary teeth (dmft+DMFT). Decay free = no decayed, missing or filled primary or secondary teeth (dmft+DMFT=0).
Source:1986 to 1995: AIHW Child Dental Health Survey Reports, 1996: Save Our Kids' Smiles (SOKS) database, Dental Health Branch, NSW Health Department.
Oral health of children is most commonly assessed by their dental caries (decay). The score for decayed, missing or filled teeth (DMFT) is the number of teeth affected by decay, including teeth filled or missing because of decay. DMFT scores for 12-year-old children reflect caries experience in permanent and some primary teeth.

The DMFT score of NSW 12-year-olds declined slowly between 1986 and 1996, but was higher than the national average (AIHW 1986-1995). In the same period, the proportion of children who were decay-free increased rapidly, from 36.7 per cent to 55.7 per cent. This indicates that children who had experienced decay in 1996 (at 2.4 DMFT) had a greater disease burden than their counterparts a decade before (2.2 DMFT).

The data for the period 1986 to 1995 were collected from around 1.5 per cent of NSW children , sampled from the 26 per cent of children who attended public dental services (see page 251).

Although consistent with previous data, the figures shown for 1996 are not directly comparable because they come from the Save Our Kids Smiles (SOKS) program, a schools-based risk assessment and managed care program for all NSW children in kindergarten and years 2, 4, 6 and 8.

The figures for 1996 are for all children in grade 6 assessed by SOKS (median age 11 years 9 months), representing 61 per cent of all NSW children in grade 6.

In 1996, 57 per cent of NSW children in grade 6 assessed by the SOKS program had experienced no tooth decay. The children had on average one decayed, missing or filled tooth.

Reference:AIHW Dental Statistics Research Unit, Child Dental Health Survey, DSRU, Adelaide, 1986-1995.
For more information, see: NSW Health Department,Child dental health report, in press.
National Health Strategy, Improving dental health in Australia, Background paper no. 9, National Health Strategy, Canberra, 1992.
Australian Dental Association
Produced by Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Public Health Division, New South Wales Health Department on 24 March 1998.