Inequalities in the dental treatment provided to children: an example from the UK

To identify the relationship between the socioeconomic status of frequently attending children and the dental care of their primary dentition provided by dentists working in the General Dental Service (GDS) of the UK National Health Service (NHS).

The study design involved a retrospective investigation of the case notes of 658 children who were regularly attending patients of 50 General Dental Practitioners (GDPs) working in the North West of England. The socioeconomic status of each subject was measured using the Townsend score of their electoral ward of residence. Logistic regression models, taking into account the clustering of the subjects within dental practices, were fitted to identify whether or not socioeconomic status was significantly associated with the proportion of carious teeth that were restored, all dental extractions, dental extractions for pain or sepsis alone and courses of antibiotics prescribed after controlling other variables.

A significant association between socioeconomic status and caries experience could not be found. There was also no association between socioeconomic status and the proportion of carious teeth filled or courses of antibiotics prescribed. Disadvantaged children were significantly more likely to have teeth extracted than their more affluent peers, but there was no association between deprivation and extractions for pain or sepsis alone.

Children from deprived backgrounds who regularly attended this group of UK dentists were more likely to have extractions than their more affluent peers, irrespective of their caries experience.