Publications
Scottish Health Boards' Dental Epidemiological Programme
Report of the 1997/98 Survey of 5 Year Old Children
Executive Summary
Prepared by N B Pitts, Z J Nugent, P A Smith
Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee.
The Scottish Health Boards' Dental Epidemiological Programme (SHBDEP) is a joint venture between all fifteen Health Boards (represented through the Chief Administrative Dental Officers/Consultants in Dental Public Health Group) and the Chief Scientist Office's Dental Health Services Research Unit based at the University of Dundee. Standardised surveys are undertaken on randomly selected samples of children across Scotland using the criteria and timetable agreed by the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD). This enables Boards to compare their own results with other areas of Scotland and with other parts of the UK. These surveys are essential for monitoring progress towards the targets set out in the recent Oral Health Strategy for Scotland.
Aim
The aim of this year's survey was to determine current experience of tooth decay (dental caries) in 5 year old children in Scotland,to provide a simple baseline population measure of levels of oral cleanliness and to illustrate the impact of deprivation on the dental health of this age group; these results are summarised below. Full details can be found in the main Report.
Key Results
Dental caries experience (d3mft) for Scotland: The overall result of a mean number of decayed (d3), missing (m) and filled (f) teeth (t) per child of 2.7 is considerably higher than the mean of 1.8 for Great Britain which was recorded in the BASCD surveys of 1995/96. The Care Index (ft/d3mft) reveals that only 8.6% of the dentinal caries experience was recorded as fillings (ft=0.23). The map opposite (Figure I2 in Appendix I of the Report) shows the variation in the distribution of caries experience across Scotland.
Dental caries experience (d3mft) for individual Health Boards: The figure opposite (Figure 1 in the Report) shows the mean d3mft for each Health Board and the 95% confidence intervals associated with each mean. The size of the error bars indicate the limited extent to which this figure can be interpreted as a simple "league table"; overlapping error bars indicate differences that are not statistically significant.
The proportion "free" of caries experience at the dentinal level: Only 43% of 5 year olds were found to be "free" of dental decay experience at the caries into dentine level of detection (that is decay penetrating beyond the enamel surface of teeth). The range across the fifteen Health Boards was from 31% to 59%.
Trends over time: The overall (d3mft) results from the five previous SHBDEP surveys of this age group indicated that the decline in levels of decay seen previously had halted in the late 1980s; the results of this survey are in line with this scenario. The Care Index (ft/d3mft) has risen slightly to 8.6% from the the previous survey. The proportion of children "free" of caries experience at the dentinal level continues to hover around the 40% mark, falling far short of the National Target of 60% by the year 2000.
Deprivation: The strong association between deprivation and dental disease which was seen in the 1995/96 Survey is still apparent in this year's results, see figure opposite (Figure 7 in the Report). Almost four and a half times as many children in DEPCAT groups 6 and 7 (most deprived) require extractions or endodontics compared with children in DEPCAT groups 1 and 2 (least deprived).
Uneven distribution of decay: All of the decaying teeth (d3t) were found in 52% of the children (a finding which is very similar to the results for Scottish 5 year olds from the UK survey conducted by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in 1995). Some of these children had very high disease levels; more than half of the untreated decay was found in just 9% of the children.
Oral cleanliness: A substantial amount of plaque was recorded for 4% of children, with a further 35% having a little plaque visible. The presence of plaque was associated with high levels of decay.
More detailed information is available in the full Report. Copies can be obtained from the Dental Health Services Research Unit, Dental School, Park Place, Dundee DD1 4HR (price £10 per copy). For local information please contact the Chief Administrative Dental Officer/ Consultant in Dental Public Health at the relevant Health Board.
Mean d3mft Results for Scotland by Health Board 1997/8 (d3=caries into dentine)
Mean number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (d3mft) per child for each Health Board
The proportion "free" of caries experience (d3mft=0) by Health Board
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