Dental Health Status and Treatment Needs of Elementary School Children in Taiwan

Through implementation of preventive strategies such as a fluoride-containing mouth rinse program (FCMRP) since 1991, the dental health status of primary school children in Taiwan has recently been improved. The purposes of this study were to assess whether the dental health status has improved after these many years of efforts and to determine how much dental treatment children still need. In this study, 2324 children aged 6~12 years old, were recruited by a stratified cluster sampling method with probability proportional to size. Subjects were examined for dental health and evaluated for treatment needs. The rules and criteria of the dental examination followed those published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The examiners received reliability training prior to conducting the examinations. The data were analyzed by JMP software. The filling rate of permanent teeth of 12-year-old children was 58.78%. Compared to the previous data, the dental status of Taiwan's school children has improved, and WHO oral health targets for the year 2000 were achieved. Furthermore, the filling rate has also remarkably improved.