Validity of dental screening questions in an Indigenous young adult population.

摘要

Indigenous Australians have worse oral health than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Despite the public health importance of Indigenous Australian oral health, there is limited epidemiological information available upon which to guide Indigenous oral health policy. This raises an important question regarding the oral health, or more specifically, the untreated dental needs, of Indigenous Australians: can screening questions and other self-reported risk indicators be used to predict Indigenous Australians' probability of experiencing untreated dental decay? A positive answer might permit population-level screening for untreated decay among Indigenous Australians using screening questions that are simpler to administer than processes requiring intra-oral examination.