Introduction: As not many studies have been carried out before looking at oral health of preschool children in rural Western Australia, it was thought essential to carry out a study exploring the social factors that may be related to the oral health of these children. Therefore the present study was planned across the wider parts of rural Western Australia to assess caries experience and dental health behaviour of these children.
Materials and Methods:This study was a cross sectional survey of preschool children aged 2-5 years from six clinics including Carnarvon, Geraldton, Roebourne, Wiluna, Esperance, and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Results: Around 260 preschool children in all were examined at these clinics. 60 per cent of the children were caries free. Significantly more non Indigenous children were caries free than Indigenous children. Toothbrush use was significantly more in the non-Indigenous community than the Indigenous population. The prevalence and severity of dental caries(mean dmft) was higher in Indigenous children. It was also more in children who often consumed carbonated drinks.
Conclusion: This study established that dental caries is a major problem in preschool children in Indigenous communities in rural Western Australia. Co ordinated efforts are required to develop oral health promotion programmes aiming at these high risk groups. Also parental education and awareness is required so that they are able to take their children for a dental check up before the age of 5 years when the child comes in contact with school dental services.
Key words: Preschool children, early childhood caries, Indigenous, Non Indigenous, Dental status, and remote.
Abbreviations: ECC=Early childhood caries, DMFT=Decayed, missing, filled teeth in secondary dentition, SPSS=Statistical Package for Social Sciences, dmft=decayed, missing, filled teeth in primary dentition, s-ECC=Severe early childhood caries, CDHS=Child dental health Survey.