Fluoridated Australia

More than half of Australian children have tooth decay

New report shows high rates of tooth decay in children and outlines the disparity of oral health across Australia

Australian children have high rates of tooth decay, according to a new report.

 Photograph: Alamy

More than half of kids between the ages of six to ten have tooth decay, according to a new report on dental health.

Two reports released on Friday morning present the results of major national surveys of dental health by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The first report is an overall summary of dental health, and thesecond looking specifically at children with comparison between urban and remote areas. Both combine new and old survey data on dental health.

Shockingly, more than 50% of kids had some sort of decay for the age groups six to ten.

The overall picture of dental health is provided by the DMFT index (written dmft for baby teeth), which combines the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth into a single figure. Lower DMFT means better dental health and higher means worse.

There's also been an increase in decay for kids at all ages except 5-year-olds since the last survey in 2007.

Professor Kaye Roberts-Thomson, one of the report's authors, said these levels of decay were a "real problem" in Australia.

"People thought decay was going away," she said.

"It's increased since the mid 1990s, and that could be all sorts of things, like less tap water, more sugar, it could be lots of different things."

When you look at results of the overall report by income status, there's also a pretty clear picture of worse dental health among poor people, with DMFT decreasing with increasing income until the 60,000 - 80,000 bracket. That is, people with more money have healthier teeth.