Children's dental health: British expatriate residents in Tokyo, Japan

Yuko Mikami, Susumu Wakai, Ray Croucher, Mark P. Hector, Yasuhide Nakamura

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Aim: To identify in expatriate British parents resident in Tokyo, Japan, their levels of dental health knowledge, patterns of dental health behaviour, and caries status of their children compared to Japanese children. Methods: 223 parents with children at one school were asked to complete a structured questionnaire. Data were collected on: parental knowledge and behaviours with respect to caries prevention, and sweet consumption of the children. The caries status of the children was established by a clinical examination, using standard criteria. Results: The questionnaire response rate was 66.8%. The mean age of the children was 7.6 years (range 3-11 years). The responses related to 51 British, 21 Japanese, and 20 children who had British and Japanese mixed parents. 33% of British and none of Japanese children had sweet foods frequently. Fluoridated toothpaste was used by 67% of British and 10% of Japanese children. British parents knew about dental caries more than Japanese. 13% of British and 38% of Japanese children were found in the higher caries experience group. Conclusion: Parental access to information in the UK and to fluoridated toothpaste in Japan could have helped to prevent dental caries in these expatriate British children.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)280-284
    Number of pages5
    JournalInternational Dental Journal
    Volume53
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2003

    Keywords

    • Caries prevalence
    • Caries prevention
    • Dental health behaviour
    • Dental health knowledge
    • Japan
    • UK

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Dentistry

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