Rates of dental decay for primary school children in Jersey vary dramatically across Island

Monday 17 August 2015

A new study has revealed large differences in dental decay rates for primary school children across Jersey, and socio-economic could be to blame.

The highest levels of tooth decay in five-year-olds were found at St Luke’s, which had a dmft (decayed, missing, or filled due to decay) rating of 1.63, nearly three times the Jersey average of 0.57.

29 schools in Jersey took part in the survey, by a British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry (BASCD) trained examiner, in March 2014. 

68% of parents of children eligible for the survey, commissioned by the Health and Social Services Department and the Social Security Department, gave their consent and the examiner managed to inspect the teeth of 659 children. Of these 174, or 26.3%, had visible signs of tooth decay by the age of five. A similar study in 2012 revealed 27.9% of children in England had signs of tooth decay.

285 parents failed to send back consent forms (29.6%), however, only two parents actually refused consent, and only one child, a pupil at Helvetia, refused to let someone look at their teeth on the day.

Excluding Mont a L’Abbe, which had a 100% parental consent rate, and a 0 decay rating for the two children surveyed, the highest consent return was at St Clements, where 96.5 % of parents (28 out of 29) agreed to have their children’s teeth examined. The average dmft here was under 0.4, with around 25% of pupils surveyed exhibiting signs of tooth decay.

The report, by the inspector Kate Cullotty, stated: “It is recommended that there is pro active work to improve response rates and further surveys are undertaken to enable comparisons. The use of other indicators such as ethnicity and measures of deprivation in future surveys are also recommended.”

A recent paper by G.M Davies for Public Health England on non-return of consent forms found an association between deprivation and consent return. It suggested that difficulty understanding the forms; lack of motivation, interest or organisation, and the possibility some parents wanted to conceal their children’s poor oral health, were all factors.

However, the paper recognised that while decay is caused by scientific reasons, it is lifestyle factors that cause it to progress, rather than deprivation itself.

Mr Michael Cassidy, Consultant in Restorative Dentistry, said: “It is positive to see that the figures in Jersey are better than those in the UK. There is a proven connection between socio-economic factors in a jurisdiction and the standard of health – this applies in many areas, not just dental health. 

“The fact that Jersey doesn’t have the more pronounced levels of poverty that are found in some inner cities in the UK is a factor in the results of the survey. Socio-economic factors also play a part in explaining the range of results across the 29 Jersey schools visited.”