Summary
This publication reports on oral health, dental visiting and dental treatment needs of Australian children as reported in the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey (NDTIS) 2010. Time series data across all NDTISs conducted since 1994 are presented to provide a picture of how key measures have changed over time. Finally, comparisons with international data are presented to provide a picture of how Australian children fare among their international counterparts.
Oral health
The majority of Australian children report good oral health. However, 7% reported that they had experienced toothache and 10% reported that they had avoided certain foods during the previous 12 months. Children from low income households were more likely to report having fair or poor oral health and to have experienced toothache than children from high income households. There was no significant change over time in these measures.
Dental visiting
Almost 70% of children made a dental visit in the previous 12 months and the majority (84%) visited for a check-up. Less than a third of pre-school-aged children had ever made a dental visit. Children from the lowest income households were less likely than those from higher income households to have both made a dental visit and to have visited for a check-up. Both of these measures of dental visiting have remained fairly stable over time.
Barriers to dental care use
Around 13% of children avoided or delayed making a dental visit due to cost. Around 6% did not have a recommended treatment due to cost. Overall, almost 30% of children avoided or delayed seeking care, did not have recommended treatment or their household experienced a large financial burden due to the cost of dental care. Children from low income households were 7 times as likely than those from high income households to avoid or delay due to cost and 6 times as likely to have not had recommended treatment due to cost.
International comparisons
Comparable data are available for children in Canada and New Zealand. Overall, Australian children were less likely to report that they had fair or poor oral health, and less likely to have made a dental visit in the previous 12 months than their counterparts in New Zealand. Australian teenagers were less likely than their Canadian counterparts to report fair or poor oral health and were more likely to have avoided or delayed making a dental visit due to cost.
Preliminary material: Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Symbols
1 Introduction
- Measures reported in this publication
2 Oral health
- What is oral health?
- Why are we interested in knowing about oral health?
- What are the known risk factors for oral disease?
- Measures of oral health
- What proportion of children and teenagers experienced poor oral health in 2010?
- Does oral health vary with age?
- Does oral health vary by geographic location?
- Does oral health vary by socioeconomic status?
- Does oral health vary by insurance status?
- How has the oral health of children and teenagers changed over time?
3 Dental visiting
- Why is dental visiting important?
- Measures of dental visiting
- How many children and teenagers made a dental visit?
- Does dental visiting vary with age?
- Does dental visiting vary by geographic location?
- Does dental visiting vary by socioeconomic status?
- Does dental visiting vary by insurance status?
- Has dental visiting changed over time?
- 4 Financial barriers and hardship
- Measures of financial barriers and hardship
- How many children and teenagers experienced barriers to dental visiting in 2010?
- Do dental visiting barriers vary with age?
- Do barriers to dental visiting vary by geographic location?
- Do financial barriers and hardships vary by socioeconomic status?
- Do financial barriers and hardships vary by insurance status?
- Have barriers to dental visiting changed over time?
5 Services received
- Measures of services received
- What preventive services did children receive in 2010?
- What diagnostic and treatment services did children receive in 2010?
- Did preventive services vary by age?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by age?
- Did preventive services vary by geographic location?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by geographic location?
- Did preventive services vary by socioeconomic status?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by socioeconomic status?
- Did preventive services vary by insurance status?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by insurance status?
- Did preventive services vary by reason for visit?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by reason for visit?
- Did preventive services vary by type of practice visited?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by type of practice visited?
- Did preventive services vary by experience of financial barriers or hardship?
- Did diagnostic and treatment services vary by experience of financial barriers or hardship? Have services received changed over time?
6 Perceived need for care
- Measure of perceived need for dental care
- How many children reported a need for dental care?
- Did perceived need for dental care vary by age?
- Does need for dental care vary by geographic location?
- Does need for dental care vary by socioeconomic status?
- Does need for dental care vary by insurance status?
- Is perceived need for care related to recent visiting experience or oral health?
- Is perceived need for care related to recent experience of financial barriers or hardship?
- Has perceived need for care changed over time?
7 Dental visiting, oral health and financial barriers
- Did dental visiting pattern vary by experience of financial barriers and hardship?
- Did experience of oral health impacts vary by dental visiting pattern?
- Did experience of oral health impacts vary by experience of barriers to dental care?
8 Synthesis of findings over time and between population groups
- General picture
- Changes over time
- Differences between males and females
- Differences between age groups
- Differences across geographic location
- Differences between socioeconomic groups
- Differences by dental insurance status
- Differences by financial barriers and hardships
- International comparisons
- National Dental Telephone Interview Survey
Appendixes
Appendix A: Data used in this report
Appendix B: Confidence intervals for tables
End matter: References; List of tables; List of figures; List of boxes