The dental health status of children not included by parents in the South Australian School Dental Programme. A pilot study.

About 90 per cent of children have received school dental care at South Australian schools where this care has been available. However, following recent extension of the dental programme to metropolitan schools without clinics located in their grounds, lower participation rates of about 74 per cent have emerged. A pilot study of 161 children not included in the school dental programme at 13 of these metropolitan schools without clinics was conducted to evaluate their dental health status and determine why they were not enrolled for school dental care.