A comparison between dental caries, gingival health and dental service usage in Bangladeshi and white Caucasian children aged 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 years residing in an inner city area of London, UK.

437 school children in the age groups 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 years participated in this study. They were from a highly disadvantaged area in Tower Hamlets, an inner district of London which has a large, newly-arrived, easily-identifiable and homogenous Bangladeshi population. Comparisons of the service utilisation between the Bangladeshi and the white groups showed that 30 per cent of the former children had never been to the dentist, as opposed to 4 per cent of the latter. The caries experience of the Bangladeshi 15-year-old age group was found to be much lower, with a DMF of 1.56, than the white group at 3.39. The gingival condition of the Bangladeshi group was poorer than the white group. Studies relating dental health to ethnic groups may no longer be relevant once the different ethnic groups are not clearly identifiable.