219813 Oral Health Status of Saskatchewan School children: 2008-2009 Dental Screening Report

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 1:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Vinay Kumar Pilly, BDS, MPH , School of Public Health and College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan and Saskatoon Health Region, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
        
Oral Health Status of Saskatchewan School children: 2008-2009

Objectives: The Dental Screening Report is a province-wide needs-based oral health screening survey of school children in grades 1 and 7 across Saskatchewan's 12 Regional Health Authorities (RHA) that monitors oral health status trends, identifies children with unmet dental needs and provides data for oral health program planning.

Methods: The number of decayed, missing/extracted and filled teeth were recorded for 17914 Grade 1 (n=9079) and Grade 7 (n=8835) students. SPSS 17.0 was used to calculate deft, DMFT and mean deft/DMFT and to compare oral health status between urban/rural and Hutterite/non-Hutterite schools; by community water fluoridation status; and by socioeconomic status (SES) in Regina and Saskatoon schools.

Results: The percentage of caries-free children was significantly lower in rural (43.3%, p<0.05) and Hutterite (19.1%, p<0.05) schools as well as in schools in non-fluoridated communities (43.8%, p<0.05). Only 37.2 %( p<0.05) of students in low SES schools in Regina (40.8%, p<0.05) and Saskatoon (34.1%, p<0.05) were caries-free. Two northern RHA's had the highest mean Grade 1 and Grade 7 deft/DMFT scores: Keewatin Yatthe (6.31, 4.21) and Mamawetan Churchill River (5.71, 1.57)

Conclusions: Based on the 2008-2009 screening results, school children with the highest dental caries risk status and suffering the greatest oral health disparities lived in rural, Hutterite, non-fluoridated and Northern communities. Provincial preventive and treatment strategies should be focused on targeting and eliminating access to care barriers in these priority communities to reduce the number of children with unmet oral health needs.

Learning Areas:
Basic medical science applied in public health
Chronic disease management and prevention
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Epidemiology
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1.To identify children with unmet dental health needs and allow for referral and follow up. 2.Evaluate the success of preventive dental programs such as fluoride varnish clinics, fluoride mouth rinse programs, dental sealants, community water fluoridation etc. 3. To monitor the oral health status of Saskatchewan children and notice trends 4. To design preventive and treatment strategies for children with highest dental caries risk status and suffering the greatest oral health disparities.

Keywords: Oral Health Needs, Oral Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract Author on the content i am responsible for because i worked with the Saskatoon Health Region, as part of my M.P.H. practicum project and had cleaned, analyzed and reported the results for the dental screening data collected for the year 2008-09.
Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Name of Organization Clinical/Research Area Type of relationship
College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan Oral Health Status of Saskatchewan children Employment (includes retainer)
Saskatoon Health Region,Saskatoon Practicum student Practicum site

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 5178.0: Oral Health Interventions to Improve Access to Dental Care for Children