The dental status of four-year-old children in the Brunswick Child Development Study.

Abstract

This dental survey was undertaken as part of the Brunswick Child Development Study to investigate the way in which family functioning affected infant health, growth and development in a poor socioeconomic, multi‐ethnic municipality of Melbourne. Two‐hundred‐and‐sixteen mothers were interviewed and 202 children (aged four years) were examined in 1982. Sixty‐two per cent of the children in the study were caries‐free. This appeared to be associated with the implementation of water fluoridation in Melbourne. Of the remaining 38 per cent, a high‐risk group was identified which appeared related to the ethnic background and educational level of the mothers. Children of Lebanese and/or Turkish mothe..