December 2020

Volume 37, Issue 4

Oral Health Inequalities in 0-17-year-old Children Referred for Dental Extractions Under General Anaesthesia in Wolverhampton

Authors: Robert S. Harper Ishfaq Khan Ruoling Chen Alan Nevill
doi: 10.1922/CDH_00056Harper06

Abstract

Objective: Describe the inequalities in oral health in children treated in a hospital located in a deprived urban area in the UK. Research design: Case-note review of 1911 0-17-year-olds who underwent dental extractions under a general anaesthetic (DGA). Main outcome measures: Associations between Age, Ethnicity, Year-of-Treatment and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) with the number of teeth extracted. Analysis used multilevel modelling assuming a Poisson distribution. Results: Mean number of teeth extracted was higher in  the  youngest children treated aged 0-5 years (relative  risk  coefficient,  (RR=exp(β)=1.39; 95% CI 1.24 to 1.56) compared to those aged 6-17 years and in ‘Other Whites’ (predominantly immigrants from Eastern Europe) (RR=exp(β)=1.34; 95% CI 1.25 to 1.43), ‘South Asians’  (RR=exp(β)=1.15; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.23) but  fewer  in the  ‘Black’ ethnic  group  (RR=exp(β)=0.85; 95% CI 0.76 to 0.95).  DGA increased during the study with more teeth extracted in 2015, 2016 and 2017 (RR=exp(β)=1.12, 95% CI 1.22, 1.25) and with a negative gradient in the rate of DGA’s (per decile) in children from the most deprived to most affluent locations (RR=exp(β)=0.98; 95% CI 0.97 to 0.99). Conclusions: Significant  oral health  inequalities exist  in children  from  a deprived urban  area in the  UK. A preventive approach to children’s oral health is needed to reduce such inequalities, including public health and healthcare agencies to informing parents of children whose first language  is not  English about dental caries. Keywords: General anaesthesia, caries, ethnicity, inequalities, deprivation

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Other articles in this issue

Article Pages Access
Editorial: The impact of COVID-19 on population oral health 236-238 Download
Editorial: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dentistry 239-241 Download
The current referral patterns for temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) in Greater Manchester 242-246 Download
Oral Health Inequalities in 0-17-year-old Children Referred for Dental Extractions Under General Anaesthesia in Wolverhampton 247-252 Download
Temporomandibular dysfunction among working Australian adults and association with workplace effort-reward imbalance 253-259 Download
Barriers and facilitators to health visiting teams delivering oral health promotion to families of young children: a mixed methods study with vignettes 260-268 Download
Experience of collaboration at a family centre for preschool children in Sweden 269-274 Download
Dental Public Health Education in Europe: a survey of European Dental Schools to determine current practice and inform a core undergraduate programme 275-280 Download
Caries prevalence in 6- to 10-year-old German schoolchildren with and without disability 281-286 Download
Recruitment and Consent in an observational study 287-292 Download
Enamel development defects and oral symptoms: A hierarchical approach 293-298 Download

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