Dental caries treatment pattern in 14-15-year-old school pupils attending high caries schools in north & west Belfast and their ability to recognise untreated disease.
The study examined the dental caries treatment profile of 186 14-15-year-old children in schools known previously to have a high overall caries experience, the schools being located in a high caries area of Northern Ireland. The children had a high mean number of decayed and untreated teeth. The majority of children who had untreated decay were unaware of this status and had a mean D value of 3.85. There was a significantly higher number of untreated carious teeth for children who had not attended a dentist within the past year when compared with those who had attended (mean values 4.08 and 2.54 respectively). While there were high levels of unmet needs overall it is concluded that children who had not attended the dentist for the past year had very high levels of untreated decay.
Stewart
C
C
Department of Paediatric Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Royal Group of Hospitals, Belfast.
Kinirons
M J
MJ
D000293:Adolescent; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009660:Northern Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data