Objective: To evaluate the effects of tooth loss and age on oral health impacts in two nationally-representative adult populations. Methods: Frequency of impacts was measured using the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) in cross-sectional national surveys of representative samples of adults in the United Kingdom (n=5,281) and Australia (n=3,910). OHIP scores were expressed as the sum […]

The NSW Department of Health, Oral Health Branch and the AIHW Dental Statistics and Research Unit (DSRU) have entered into a collaborate initiative to evaluate an innovative NSW Oral Health Branch triage system to prioritise patients seeking oral health care. DSRU is evaluating the efficacy of the new system in allocating urgency codes to oral […]

It is widely acknowledged that the high turnover of staff within the public dental services throughout Australia has consequential impacts on both services delivered and costs. In light of such apparent disaffection with the public sector as an employer and insufficient literature relating to dentists’ job satisfaction in Australia, identification of factors that inhibit workforce […]

Objective: To measure job satisfaction among clinical dentists in Victoria so as to identify issues influencing recruitment and retention of dentists in active clinical practice. Design: A questionnaire measuring facets of job satisfaction was mailed to a stratified random sample of 80 private and 80 public sector dentists selected from the 1999 Victorian Dental Register. Results: An adjusted […]

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 […]