Advent Christian Church

Entry for The Advent Christian Church from the Encyclopedia of Protestantis

Decline of the edentulism epidemic in Australia

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included. Prepared by LA Crocombe and GD SladeAustralian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia; prepared by LA Crocombe and GD Slad

Does optimal access to dental care counteract the oral health-related quality of life social gradient?

To determine if an oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) social gradient existed when Australian Defence Force (ADF) members have universal and optimal access to dental care.A nominal roll included 4,089 individuals who were deployed to the Solomon Islands (SI) as part of operation ANODE and a comparison group of 4,092 ADF personnel frequency matched to the deployed group on sex, age group, and service type, from which 500 deployed and 500 comparison individuals were randomly selected. The dependent variables were the OHIP-14 summary measures. Rank was used to determine socioeconomic status. The demographic variables selected were: sex and age.Response rate was 44%. Of the individual OHIP-14 items, being self-conscious, painful aching and having discomfort when eating were the most common problems. Mean OHIP-14 severity was 2.8. In bivariate analysis, there was not a significant difference in mean OHIP-14 severity (p=0.52) or frequency of OHIP-14 impacts (p=0.57) by military rank. There was a significant increasing OHIP-14 extent score from commissioned officer to non-commissioned officer to other ranks (0.07, 0.19, 0.40, p=0.03).Even with optimal access to dental care, there was an OHRQoL social gradient between military ranks in the ADF. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.LA Crocombe, and GD Mahone

Does lower lifetime fluoridation exposure explain why people outside capital cities have poor clinical oral health?

Abstract Background Australians outside state capital cities have greater caries experience than their counterparts in capital cities. We hypothesized that differing water fluoridation exposure was associated with this disparity. Methods Data were the 2004–06 Australian National Survey of Adult Oral Health. Examiners measured participant decayed, missing and filled teeth and DMFT Index, and lifetime fluoridation exposure was quantified. Multivariable linear regression models estimated differences in caries experience between capital city residents and others, with and without adjustment for fluoridation exposure. Results There was greater mean lifetime fluoridation exposure in state capital cities (59.1%, 95% confidence interval = 56.9, 61.4) than outside capital cities (42.3, confidence interval = 36.9, 47.6). People located outside capital city areas had differing sociodemographic characteristics and dental visiting patterns, and a higher mean DMFT (capital cities = 12.9, non‐capital cities = 14.3, p = 0.02), than people from capital cities. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics and dental visits, DMFT of people living in capital cities was less than non‐capital city residents (regression coefficient = 0.8, p = 0.01). The disparity was no longer statistically significant (regression coefficient = 0.6, p = 0.09) after additional adjustment for fluoridation exposure

Relationship of dental practitioners to rural primary care networks

Abstract still to be addedResidents of rural and remote communities have poorer oral health and less access to oral health services than people living in major cities. The populations of many rural and remote centres are not large enough to support a resident dentist and, in the absence of community oral health services, rural residents may present to non-dental primary care providers with oral health problems. The aim of this study was to describe strategies that can be used by primary care practitioners to improve the provision of oral health services to rural and remote communities. The specific objectives were to (i) map oral health services practices in rural communities across primary care providers (ii) assess the extent to which oral health problems impact on service provision by primary health care providers; (iii) assess the extent to which primary care networks could be more effectively utilised to improve the provision of oral health services to rural communities and to identify what interventions/strategies were most likely to be effective.The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Strategy