National Oral Health Plan 2015–2024: performance monitoring report

Mean number of decayed, missing and filled primary and permanent teeth per child, in children aged 6 and 12 years

Numerator
Total number of decayed, missing and filled primary teeth for children aged 6 years (dmft) and permanent teeth for children aged 12 years (DMFT) examined in the reporting period

Denominator
Total number of children aged 6 and 12 years examined in the reporting period

Low

Public dental
State/territory public dental service data for children presenting to public dental clinics

NCOHS
National Child Oral Health Study*

*National population estimates presented in COHS have been derived from weighted data

Age group
Includes all teeth that are decayed, missing and filled due to caries, captured for children aged 6 and 12 years examined in the reporting period. Age is calculated from the date of birth in years (rounded down) as at the date of examination of the child when the decayed, missing and filled teeth score is captured.

Decayed teeth
(dt + DT)⁽¹⁾
Caries is recorded as present when a lesion in a pit or fissure, or on a smooth tooth surface, has an unmistakable cavity, undermined enamel, or a detectably softened floor or wall. A tooth which is restored or sealed but also decayed should be included in the number of decayed teeth.

dt: Number of decayed deciduous/primary teeth
DT: Number of decayed permanent teeth

Missing teeth (mt + MT)⁽¹⁾
Missing teeth applies to permanent or primary teeth that have been extracted because of caries. For missing primary teeth, this score should be used only if the child is at an age when normal exfoliation would not be a sufficient explanation for absence of teeth.

mt: Number of missing deciduous/primary teeth
MT: Number of missing permanent teeth

Filled teeth
(ft + FT)⁽¹⁾
Filled teeth apply to the number of primary or permanent teeth where one or more restorations are present and there is no caries anywhere on the filled tooth. A tooth may have more than one restoration, but is counted as one filled tooth.

ft: Number of filled deciduous/primary teeth
FT: Number of filled permanent teeth

Missing teeth⁽¹⁾
Teeth missing for reasons other than caries (congenitally missing, unerupted, extracted for orthodontic reasons, periodontal disease or trauma) are excluded from the count of missing teeth.

Filled teeth⁽¹⁾
Teeth with fissure sealants and not restorations or teeth restored for reasons other than caries (trauma or fixed dental prosthesis abutment) are excluded from the count of filled teeth.

Duplicate cases
Each child should be included in the data only once—uniquely and not duplicated. If a child has received more than one examination and dmft/DMFT data collection in the reporting period, only the most recent record is to be counted.