Journal of Dental Research, Vol 65, 1371-1374, Copyright © 1986 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
The dental caries status and dental treatment patterns of 12-year-old children in Hong Kong
N. M. King, J. Y. Ling, B. V. Ng and S. H. Wei
Department of Children's Dentistry & Orthodontics, University of Hong Kong, Prince Philip Dental Hospital.
A randomly selected sample of 662 12-year-old Hong Kong children, 529 of
whom were Southern Chinese and 133 non-Chinese, was clinically examined for
dental caries. The DMFT values were 2.76 and 1.66 for the Chinese and
non-Chinese children, respectively. The D component for the Chinese
children was 2.12, while for the non-Chinese children it was only 0.45.
Approximately 24.0% of the Chinese children had attended the dentist
because they were in pain. Only 3.8% of the Chinese children had sought
orthodontic or preventive treatment, compared with 24.0% of the non-Chinese
children. Although these findings indicate the caries experience to be well
below the FDI/WHO global goal for the year 2000, there is a great need to
increase the level of dental awareness among Chinese children.
