OBJECTIVES: High demand for public dental services in Australia is stimulating the development of approaches to prioritise access to public dental care based on patient need. This research aimed to determine whether indicators of relative social disadvantage could be used as criteria for prioritisingprovision of routine care to adult patients in public dental clinics in […]

The National Dental Telephone Interview Survey identified that young adults undergo a sharp decline in dental services use. Objective: The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the patterns of dental utilization of young South Australian adults aged 20-24 years at baseline. Methods: A random sample of young adults was selected from the electoral […]

Existing conceptual frameworks explaining social inequality in oral health emphasise the material and behavioural explanations advanced in the 1980 Black Report. Objectives: (1) To evaluate the contribution of psychosocial factors in explaining subjective oral health; and (2) to assess the explanatory potential of psychosocial factors among different income groups. Methods: Cross sectional study of dentate […]

Social class modifies the impact of tooth loss on subjective oral health (SOH) in the UK. However, it is not known whether this occurs in other populations nor whether the effect is limited to occupational-based markers of socioeconomic status. Objectives: to determine whether occupational prestige (OP) of employed Australians modifies associations between tooth loss and […]

The 1990 WHO report Educational imperatives for oral health personnel predicted dramatic changes in dental service provision in industrialised countries in the immediate decade. These would be characterised by a shift away from medium level interventions that dominated at that time and an increase in high level interventions. Objectives: (1) to describe the baseline and trends in […]