Dental self-care and visiting behaviour in relation to social inequality in caries experience

Objectives: To investigate associations of dental behaviour with social inequality in oral health. Methods: A random sample of 45-54 year-olds from Adelaide, South Australia was surveyed by self-complete questionnaire in 2004-05 (n=879, response rate 43.8%). Oral examinations were performed by calibrated dentists on 709 persons (80.7% of participants). Results: The mean (SE) number of decayed teeth (D) was 0.4 (0.04), with 5.3 (0.2) missing teeth (M), 11.0 (0.2) filled teeth (F) and 16.6 (0.2) DMFT. The majority brushed their teeth 8 or more times per week (78.8%) and had made a dental visit within the last 12 months (63.7%). Nearly a quarter had a household income of under $30,000 (24.0%). Multivariate analysis showed a three-way interaction (p