A three year follow up study of the dental health of 12- and 15-year-old schoolchildren in Glasgow.

In 1984 the Greater Glasgow Health Board commissioned a survey of the dental health of 12- and 15-year-old schoolchildren in Glasgow to aid the planning of dental services. As a number of studies have shown that dental health is improving in Western Europe, a new survey was undertaken in 1987 to assess whether there had been any improvement in the dental health of Glasgow schoolchildren. The 1984 study had also demonstrated a lower level of caries prevalence in good socio-economic areas (SEG1) than in deprived areas (SEG2), therefore the new study was designed to investigate further the effect of the social environment. The sampling frame and methods were similar to the 1984 study. Mean DMFT for 12 year old children was 4.71 in 1984 and 2.91 in 1987, a 38 per cent fall. the 15 year old children had mean DMFT scores of 7.97 and 5.56 respectively, a 30 per cent reduction. Although an improvement in dental health was found in all groups, when the data were divided by socio-economic groups major differences were revealed. The percentage improvements found in SEG1 were up to 3 times larger than those in SEG2. Thus the general improvement in dental health was mainly due to the SEG1 children. There has been an improvement in dental health in Glasgow children over the three-year period, but dental caries is still a major problem in many parts of Glasgow, particularly the deprived areas. Urgent steps need to be taken to implement preventive and health promotion programmes in these areas. The whole of Glasgow would benefit from the introduction of water fluoridation at an early date.