The dental caries experience of 5-year-old children in the United Kingdom.Surveys co-ordinated by the British Association for the Study of CommunityDentistry in 1997/98.

Objective This paper reports the results of standardised clinical caries ex aminations of 176,781 5-year-old children from across the United Kingdom. T hese 1997/98 co-ordinated surveys are the latest in a series which seek to monitor the dental health of children and to assess the delivery of dental services. Method The criteria and conventions of the British Association fo r the Study of Community Dentistry were used. Representative samples were d rawn from participating health authorities and boards and caries was diagno sed at the caries into dentine threshold using a visual method without radi ography or fibre-optic transillumination. Results The results again demonst rated a wide variation in prevalence across the UK, with mean values for d( 3)mft for the current English regions (of the National Health Service) and the other UK 'territories' ranging from 1.02 in the West Midlands to 2.92 i n Northern Ireland. Mean d(3)mft across the UK was 1.68 (d(3)t=1.18, mt=0.2 6, ft=0.23). Overall, 43% of children had evidence of caries experience (d( 3)mft>0), although the means ranged between 33% (West Midlands) and 63% (No rthern Ireland). The distribution of caries was highly skewed. Thus the UK mean caries experience for those with disease was 3.94, as opposed to the o verall mean of 1.68. Trends over time demonstrate a modest improvement of 8 .7% in overall d(3)mft for Great Britain since 1995/96, compared to the sma ll improvement seen two years ago and the deterioration seen four years pre viously. Both dt and mt have fallen while ft remained unchanged. The care i ndex has increased in all but one region/territory (14% in 1997/8, compared to 12% in 1995/6). Regional/country means for 1997/8 ranged from 9-23%. Th is indicator has not, however, regained the levels seen in the past. Conclu sion There has been some improvement in the dental health of 5-year-old chi ldren. Overall, the provision of operative care for those with dentinal dec ay has also improved; however, significant groups remain within the populat ion of 5-year-old children who have dental disease and who are in need of d ental care.