The dental health of 10-year-old children attending multi-racial schools in Greater Glasgow

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether an inequality in caries experience existed for permanent teeth between Asian and white primary 7 schoolchildren (mean age 10.59 years, SE 0.03 years) attending Greater Glasgow schools. In 1989, all 18 schools in Greater Glasgow with at least 25% of its pupils from an Asian background participated in the study. All the schools selected by this method were located in areas of multiple deprivation according to both the ACORN neighbourhood classification and the Jarman social deprivation score. Five hundred and sixteen children were examined. The Asian population as a whole (n = 241, DMFT = 0.95) and each of the subgroups, Muslim with English-speaking mothers (ES) (n = 67, DMFT = 1.24), and non-English-speaking mothers (NES) (n = 130, DMFT = 0.93), non-Muslim with ES mothers (n = 24, DMFT = 0.38) and NES mothers (n = 20, DMFT = 0.90), had a better caries experience of the first permanent molar than that of the white indigenous population (n = 242, DMFT = 1.52). This trend was also seen in the percentage of children with sound first permanent molars: white = 39%, Asian (total) = 54%, Muslim (ES) = 43% and (NES) = 56%, non-Muslim (ES) = 71% and (NES) = 60%. It is concluded that the inequality in caries experience reported in the primary dentition between young Asian and indigenous schoolchildren is not apparent for permanent teeth in children attending primary 7 classes in multiracial schools.