Caries prevalence of 5-year-old children in Athens and in South London.

This study compared the dental health of 5-year-old children in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark with that in the municipality of Athens, Greece. Three hundred and eighty-four children were examined in London, and 318 in Athens; both samples had a mean age of 5 years 6 months. The proportion of London children who were caries free was 56%, and of Athens children 57.5%, and the mean dmft was 1.63 and 1.48, respectively; these differences were not statistically significant. However, excluding caries-free children from the analysis, the London children had significantly fewer decayed teeth (mean 2.35 compared with 2.93 in Athens) and significantly more missing teeth (mean 0.63 compared with 0.02), indicating marked differences in treatment patterns.