Child Dental Health Survey 2007: a snapshot of the oral health status of primary school-aged children in NSW

Claire Phelan; Roy Byun; John C. Skinner; Anthony S. Blinkhorn

doi:10.1071/NB08069

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Child Dental Health Survey 2007: a snapshot of the oral health status of primary school-aged children in NSW

Claire Phelan ^A ^D , Roy Byun ^B , John C. Skinner ^A and Anthony S. Blinkhorn ^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Centre for Oral Health Strategy, NSW Department of Health

^B NSW Public Health Officer Training Program, NSW Department of Health

^C Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney

^D Corresponding author. Email: claire_phelan@wsahs.nsw.gov.au

NSW Public Health Bulletin 20(4) 40-45 https://doi.org/10.1071/NB08069
Published: 27 April 2009

Abstract

Objectives: The Child Dental Health Survey 2007 was commissioned to establish the oral health status of school children in NSW aged 5–12 years, to provide reliable regional oral health statistics and contribute to national population-based data collections. Methods: A total of 7975 children were clinically examined at 107 public, catholic and independent schools across NSW. Results: Key findings from the survey include: mean dmft for 5–6-year-olds of 1.53; mean DMFT for 11–12-year-olds of 0.74; 61.2% of 5–6-year-olds and 65.4% of 11–12-year-olds have never experienced decay in their primary and permanent teeth, respectively. These figures compare favourably to national benchmarks set in 2001. Conclusions: Data from the survey will be used as a baseline to measure the success of early intervention and prevention programs, for international comparisons, to provide solid evidence to support population oral health planning and for ongoing surveillance of populations of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance and expertise during the survey planning phase of Dr Clive Wright from the Centre for Oral Health Strategy and, from ARCPOH, Professor John Spencer, Dr Kaye Roberts-Thomson, Anne Ellershaw, Dr Loc Do and Dr Jason Armfield. The authors also acknowledge Dr Sandra Meihubers for conducting the calibration and reliability testing for NSW Health survey examination teams, Dr Alan Patterson for protocol development, the exam teams and co-ordinators for administering the survey and Sam Sterland and staff from the National Church Life Survey for retrofitting and scanning of the data forms to Teleform.

References

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