UQ's School of Dentistry Associate Professor Ratilal Lalloo spoke to the Brisbane Times about an intervention that reduced Indigenous kids’ tooth decay rates in remote north Queensland.
A trial of a children’s dental health program in a remote Queensland Indigenous community showed the value of simple health interventions in promoting overall health in Indigenous communities, researchers said.
Dental health is a serious problem for some Indigenous communities, with Indigenous children in rural Australia recording up to three times the rate of tooth decay compared with other Australian children.
Associate Professor Ratilal Lalloo from UQ's School of Dentistry led the study to find out what effect a simple intervention could have.
“We wanted to test an intervention to reduce that burden - the idea was to take what we considered the main preventative strategies against tooth decay and see what effect that had on ongoing dental health,” he said.
