Caries experience among publicly-funded dental patients in Australia, 1995-96: Type of care and geographic location

Health card holders are a financially disadvantaged group and are the targe t population eligible for publicly-funded dental care. While their health s tatus is generally worse compared with other Australians, there is also con siderable variation among card holders. The aims of this study were to desc ribe the oral health status of publicly-funded dental patients by type of c are, geographic location and age, and to compare trends over time against o ther Australian studies. Patients were sampled randomly, based on date of b irth, by State/Territory dental services in 1995-96. Dentists recorded oral health measures at the initial visit of a course of care using written ins tructions, but there was no formal calibration. The 6109 patients sampled w ere weighted in proportion to the numbers of publicly-funded dental patient s for each State/Territory. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated t hat caries experience measured by the DMFT index increased across older age groups (p<0.05). For rural compared with urban patients, mean numbers of d ecayed and filled teeth tended to be higher. For emergency compared with no n-emergency care, mean numbers of decayed and missing teeth were higher, an d filled teeth lower. The findings of this monitoring survey document high levels of previous disease and treatment and indicate variation between sub groups of users of publicly-funded dental care. This included an uneven geo graphic distribution of oral health and disease, and variation in unmet tre atment needs by type of course of care. Temporal comparisons indicate publi cly-funded patients have experienced the population trend towards tower lev els of tooth loss overtime but have higher levels of untreated decayed teet h compared with the general population.