The relationship between family structure and childhood dental neglect

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between family structure and childhood dental neglect (CDN) in East London. Methods: Cross sectional data were obtained in 2005 from RELACHS (Phase 3), which is a longitudinal secondary school based epidemiological study that followed up a representative sample of pupils across East London aged 11-12 years in 2001 (Phase 1). Dental clinical examinations were conducted by two calibrated dentists following WHO criteria (1997). Questionnaires were completed individually by pupils in classrooms. Explanatory variables were parental employment status, internet access and family structure. The dependent variable, CDN, was defined as having untreated dental caries and not having visited a dentist within the last 2 years. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were computed using simple and multiple logistic regression analyses. Results: Analysis included complete information on 806 pupils 15-16 year olds representing 78.2% of the sample (n=1030). Prevalence of untreated dental caries was 17.9% with more than one fifth of these (22.9%) having not visited the dentist within the last 2 years. Overall, 33 adolescents were dentally neglected (4.1%). Adolescents living with neither parent were 5.7 times (95% CI: 1.1- 30.8) more likely to be dentally neglected than those living with at least one parent (p=0.04), after adjusting for gender (p>0.05), parental employment status (p>0.05) and internet access (p>0.05). Conclusions: Living with at least one parent was protective against CDN in the study. Results should be interpreted with caution due to the small number of dentally neglected adolescents resulting in a large confidence interval. Future research should use a larger sample to address the multidimensional phenomenon of CDN.