Dental health and treatment needs among a sample of Bangladeshi medical users aged 40 years and over living in Tower Hamlets, UK

Aim: To assess the dental health status and treatment needs of Bangladeshi medical care users aged 40 years and over and to explore the relationship o f oral disease status, tobacco usage and paan (betel quid) chewing. Design: Multi-centre cross-sectional study. Setting: General medical practitioners ' waiting areas in Tower Hamlets, UK. Subjects: 185 Bangladeshi adults aged 40 years and over. Intervention: A clinical examination and an interview s chedule. Measures: Dental status, periodontal status, dental plague, calcul us and denture status. Tobacco smoking and paan chewing behaviour. Results: The response rate was 74%. 85% of participants were dentate with an averag e number of 24 (SD +/- 5.4) standing teeth. The mean DMFT score was 5.38, w ith missing teeth (3.81) being the major component. The decayed component w as 0.43 and the filled was 1.14. 46% of participants were assessed as being free from gingivitis. Significant relationships between chewing paan and a spects of dental and periodontal status were found. Impacts of oral health were reported by 45% of the respondents. The normative need for dental trea tment was 96% with a perceived need of 48%. Conclusion: There was considera ble normative dental need. Whilst caries experience was low, there were hig h levels of periodontal treatment needs. Paan chewing was related to aspect s of dental and periodontal status.