Child Dental Health Survey 2007: a snapshot of the oral health status of primary school-aged children in NSW.

OBJECTIVES The Child Dental Health Survey 2007 was commissioned to establish the oral health status of school children in NSW aged 5-12 years, to provide reliable regional oral health statistics and contribute to national population-based data collections. METHODS A total of 7975 children were clinically examined at 107 public, catholic and independent schools across NSW. RESULTS Key findings from the survey include: mean dmft for 5-6-year-olds of 1.53; mean DMFT for 11-12-year-olds of 0.74; 61.2% of 5-6-year-olds and 65.4% of 11-12-year-olds have never experienced decay in their primary and permanent teeth, respectively. These figures compare favourably to national benchmarks set in 2001. CONCLUSIONS Data from the survey will be used as a baseline to measure the success of early intervention and prevention programs, for international comparisons, to provide solid evidence to support population oral health planning and for ongoing surveillance of populations of interest.