Background: The characteristics of dentistry students and their motivation to become dentists have been of constant interest over time. Changes in admission criteria were introduced in South Australia in 1997 to include assessment of personal attributes (such as logic, problem solving, and abstract non-verbal reasoning) in addition to scholastic merit. Objective: This study aimed to […]

Research in the last decade has shown changing exposure patterns to discretionary fluorides and declining prevalence of fluorosis among South Australian children, raising the question of how risk factors for fluorosis have changed. Objective: To examine and compare risk factors for fluorosis among representative samples of South Australian children in 1992/93 and 2003/03. Methods: Similar […]

K Roberts-Thomson*, AJ Spencer Objective: To investigate the oral health of adolescents in detention, to compare it with age-matched community peers and to identify factors associated with poor health status. Methods: The oral health survey was a component of the 2003 New South Wales Young People in Custody Health Survey, Australia. The survey consisted of […]

Background: Disabled individuals depend greatly on their carers for toothbrushing, a basic yet important marker of daily oral care. Objectives: To compare reported frequency of toothbrushing among the disabled and their carers in three residential settings. Methods: Cross-sectional survey of carers of 18-44 years olds with physical and intellectual disabilities living in three settings: with […]

Objective: Preterm birth (i.e. birth before 37 completed weeks of gestation) accounts for 6-10 % of births. With increasing evidence of an association between preterm birth and periodontal disease, we examined women’s perception of their oral health and utilisation of dental services in pregnancy. Methods: Nulliparous women attending antenatal clinics were recruited into intervention study […]

In light of the current and projected dental labour force shortage, variation in productivity trends between male and female dentists is an important issue for labour force planning due to the projected increased workforce participation of female dentists. Objectives: To examine a range of productivity measures between male and female dentists over a 20-year period […]

Objectives: To evaluate the capacity of 8 screening questions to validly identify priorities for dental care. Method: Using a cross sectional study design, a convenience sample of 310 patients seeking dental care was selected from the first five callers per day requesting symptomatic care at 2 South Australian Dental Service (SADS) community dental clinics. Callers […]

Objectives: To investigate trends in receipt of hospital dental care among Australian children. Methods: Hospital dental separation data for children aged 0-9 years were obtained from the AIHW Hospital Morbidity Database for the years 1993-2004. Data were collected for administrative purposes and recorded in standardised ICD-9-AM and ICD-10-AM codes. The receipt of extractions and restorations […]

Caries risk is assessed clinically for all children in the South Australian (SA) school dental service (SDS) where cross-sectional data show age-related reduction in the percentage children classified as high-risk (%HIGH). However, longitudinal patterns of changes in risk status and disease rate have not previously been reported. OBJECTIVE: To examine longitudinal age-related patterns of clinically-assessed […]

A caries risk test, suitable for mass-screening, should not only be predictive of caries but also be inexpensive, easy to use and provide results in a short time-frame. Therefore we developed a simple colorimetric test (SAP) that indicates the rate of acid production of salivary microbes under acidic conditions. Objectives: – assess agreement between the […]