Mothers' dental attendance patterns and their children's dental attendance and dental health

Two hundred and ten 10-11-year-olds were selected at random from those attending schools in the Tameside and Glossop Health District. One hundred and eighty-eight were examined for caries, and the mothers of 177 of these children completed a questionnaire on their own and their child's dental attendance. Claimed attendance was subsequently checked with the dentist concerned. Sixty-one percent of mothers had attended a general dental practitioner during the previous 12 months and 89% of these mothers took their children with them. Of the non-attending mothers, 38% took their child to the GDS, 36% to the CDS, while 26% did not take their child to a dentist. The DMFT of the children was 1.72, and the differences in DMFT between the three attendance groups were not significant. However, there were significant differences in the decayed and missing components. The study demonstrates that the CDS and the GDS treat different populations of children by virtue of the mothers' attendance patterns. The methods developed for this study provide a basis for ongoing evaluation within a district of the implementation of the Department of Health's policy for the provision of dental treatment by the CDS.