TRENDS IN DENTAL-CARIES EXPERIENCE OF SCHOOL-CHILDREN IN AUSTRALIA - 1977 TO 1993

Data on the dental health of Australian school children from 1977 to 1 985 have previously been reported. Significant features included a sec ular decline in caries experience as defined by the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth in both the deciduous dentition (dmft index) and permanent dentition (DMFT index), and a change in the distributio n of caries experience within the child population in Australia, indic ated by increasingly smaller percentages of children accounting for gr eater proportions of total disease experience. The aim of the present paper was to extend the annual reporting on caries experience in Austr alia up to and including 1993, and to document the change in the distr ibution of caries within the child population since 1977. In addition, the data are compared with dental targets for children for the year 2 000 in Australia and internationally. Caries data were obtained for th e years 1977-1993 for children who were patients at School Dental Serv ices in each State and Territory of Australia. Caries experience was r ecorded by uncalibrated dentists and dental therapists during routine dental examinations. From 1977-89 data were weighted by State:and Terr itory: estimated resident populations. From 1989, the data were strati fied according to age, year, and State, and weighted to reflect propor tion in the national estimated resident population for each State/age stratum. Between 1977 and 1993 there has been a decline in caries expe rience for 6 year old children from a dift double dagger of 3.13 to a dmft of 1.90, and an increase in the per cent with dmft=0 from 33.1 pe r cent to 53.2 per cent with dmft=0 in 1993. Over the same time period the DMFT for 12 year olds reduced from 4.79 to 1.10 and the per dent while DMFT=0 increased from 10.5 per cent to 53.1 percent. Projection of the decline in DMFT indicates the dental health target for 12 year old children of DMFT=1.0 by the year 2000 should have been achieved by the end of 1995.