[Oral health of 15-year-old students living in non-fluoridated public school sectors on l'Ile de Montreal in 1987].

Abstract

Using data from a cross-sectional survey on 570 fifteen year old students living in non-fluoridated public school sectors on the Island of Montreal in 1987, the effect of terminating the restorative aspect of public dental health care insurance for twelve to fifteen year old students is examined. This study also highlights the level and quality of dental caries treatment on the twelve to fifteen year old group. The main point to be made is that there was an improvement in the DMFT index values of fourteen and fifteen year old students in metropolitan areas. In reality, fourteen year old children had a DMFT index of 6.45 in 1983-1984, while the fifteen year old children in the 06A region (non-fluoridated area) had a DMFT of 6.07 in 1987. Since the metropolitan fluoridated area had been eliminated from the results in 1987, it is quite obvious that the 6.07 result obtained overestimates the actual prevalence of dental caries in the metropolitan area in 1987. On the other hand, the progress which had been recorded between 1977 and 1984 by francophones in relation to anglophones was partially lost in 1987. Furthermore, this study has demonstrated that the prevalence and level of dental caries treatment are highly associated with the language spoken at home and also with the family's socio-economic status.