The dental caries status and dental treatment patterns of 12-year-old children in Hong Kong

A randomly selected sample of 662 12-year-old Hong Kong children, 529 of whom were Southern Chinese and 133 non-Chinese, was clinically examined for dental caries. The DMFT values were 2.76 and 1.66 for the Chinese and non-Chinese children, respectively. The D component for the Chinese children was 2.12, while for the non-Chinese children it was only 0.45. Approximately 24.0% of the Chinese children had attended the dentist because they were in pain. Only 3.8% of the Chinese children had sought orthodontic or preventive treatment, compared with 24.0% of the non-Chinese children. Although these findings indicate the caries experience to be well below the FDI/WHO global goal for the year 2000, there is a great need to increase the level of dental awareness among Chinese children.