The school-based dental care systems of New Zealand and South Australia--a decade of change.

The purpose of this paper is to review and update the highly successful school-based dental care systems of the country of New Zealand and the state of South Australia. These school-based systems have undergone changes in the past 10 years. The New Zealand Dental Service has greatly reduced the number of dental nurses in training. Declining birth rates, changes in disease patterns, revision of diagnostic criteria, and longer employment trends in women have all had an impact on the system. The South Australian School Dental Service has expanded rapidly in recent years to serve a high percentage of eligible South Australian children. This system also is responding to these factors with flexible programs to meet new trends. Both systems are examples of comprehensive programs of quality dental care that dissolve away SES utilization differences providing equal access to continuity of care for all children.