Abstract
The management of dental caries by the dental profession is largely concerned with water fluoridation, the treatment of teeth affected by caries, health education in the fields of nutrition and oral hygiene, and the encouragement of early introduction to regular incremental care. Where water supplies are fluoridated a dramatic reduction in caries is apparent. Treatment and restoration of carious teeth by dentists and school dental nurses in a programme of regular incremental care has achieved a very high level of dental fitness among children and young adolescents in New Zealand. However, the supposed benefits of taking up better dental health behaviour patterns promoted by dental health education have not been widely investigated. It was clearly shown in the 1973 International Collaborative Study of Dental Manpower Systems by the World Health Organization' that considerable variations in oral health occur between countries and that some of this variation was due to factors other than fluoridation and the provision of dental services. During the dental survey of 5-year-old children in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Child Development Study, the relationship between dental health behaviour advocated by the dental profession and the oral health of the children was investigated.