Summary

Sociodemographic and visit details

  • The highest percentage of patients (32.6%) were aged 65+ years and just over half of all patients were female (55.6%).
  • The majority of patients were Australian-born (69.5%) and spoke only English at home (81.8%).
  • Only a small percentage of patients were Indigenous (3.0%).
  • The majority of patients were from urban locations (57.7%).
  • Approximately equal percentages of patients received emergency (48.5%) and general dental care (51.5%).

Edentulism

  • Edentulism was higher among older patients aged 55-64 (10.0%) and 65+ (18.1%) years.
  • A higher percentage of general care patients were edentulous (12.5%) compared to emergency care (4.5%).
  • A higher percentage of rural patients were edentulous (9.7%) compared to urban patients (7.7%).

Dental prostheses

  • Overall, 63.6% of patients had no prostheses in the upper jaw, 20.3% had full dentures and 14.7% had partial dentures. In the lower jaw 79.8% of patients had no prostheses, 7.1% had full dentures and 12.5% had partial dentures.
  • The percentage of patients with full dentures in the upper jaw was higher for general (23.5%) compared to emergency patients (16.9%). A similar pattern was observed in the lower jaw, with a higher percentage of patients with full dentures for general (9.6%) compared to emergency patients (4.5%).
  • Overall, a higher percentage of rural patients had full dentures in the upper jaw (22.6%) compared to urban patients (18.3%), while urban patients had a higher percentage of partial dentures (17.3%) compared to rural patients.

Coronal caries experience

  • Decayed teeth were highest among younger patients aged 15-24 (3.97) and 25-34 years (5.16). Missing teeth increased across age groups to peak at 9.69 in the 65+ year age group. Filled teeth were highest among 45-54-year-olds (7.39).
  • Emergency care patients had a higher overall number of decayed teeth (3.17) compared to general patients (2.19), but had similar numbers of missing teeth (6.00 cf. 6.10), and lower numbers of filled teeth (5.35 cf. 6.63). Urban patients had a lower overall number of decayed teeth (2.39) compared to rural patients (3.07), and lower numbers of missing teeth (5.71 cf. 6.54), but higher numbers of filled teeth (6.47 cf. 5.28).

Root caries experience

  • Overall, root caries experience was low (0.49) and there was little accumulation of root caries experience across age groups.
  • Root caries experience was higher for emergency (0.61) compared to general care patients (0.38) reflecting higher levels of decayed roots (0.37 cf. 0.20) and filled roots (0.23 cf. 0.18).
  • There was little difference in root caries experience between urban (0.49) and rural patients (0.45) overall, with similar levels of both decayed roots (0.28 cf. 0.29) and filled roots (0.20 cf. 0.17).

Periodontal status

  • Periodontal pockets of 6+ mm were more prevalent among older patients aged 45-54 (14.3%), 55-64 (12.2%) and 65+ years (11.9%).
  • A higher percentage of emergency care patients had periodontal pockets of 6+ mm (12.5%) compared to general care patients (7.1%).
  • There was little difference in the percentage of patients with periodontal pockets of 6+ mm in urban (10.1%) compared to rural locations (9.3%).