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Dental healthAs they are growing up, Footprints in Time children arelearning how to take care of their teeth. In wave 3, theprimary carers reported that 67.7 per cent of childrenbrushed their teeth at least once a day and 5.4 per centof children never brushed their teeth. In “Oral Healthof Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children” (AIHW2007, p.vii) it was reported that ’less than 5 per cent ofremote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preschoolchildren brush their teeth on a regular basis.’ Similarly,for the Footprints in Time children, the rate of brushingon a less than daily basis did increase with remoteness.However, brushing on a less than daily basis was mostlikely to be reported in areas of moderate isolation. Inareas of moderate isolation, primary carers reported that47.9 per cent of the children did not brush at least once aday, compared with 19.1 per cent of children in areas ofno isolation. The percentage of children who brushed theirteeth at least once a day increased steadily with age untilthe age of about five (Figure 10).Nearly half of the children in the K cohort had seen adentist since the previous interview. In its report “Oralhealth and dental care in Australia: key facts and figures2011” the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)found that, in 2010, 78 per cent of Australian childrenaged 5 to 14 had visited a dentist in the previous year.According to Footprints in Time primary carers, nearlyhalf (49.4 per cent) of the children in the K cohort (aged5½ to 7) had seen a dentist or a dental nurse in theprevious 12 months. Of those who had visited a dentist,54.7 per cent saw the dentist at school. Children in theB cohort, only 12.3 per cent of whom saw a dentist,were more likely to visit a dentist at an AboriginalMedical Service.According to primary carer responses, over the courseof the three waves, 59.5 per cent of children had noproblems with their teeth (Table 8). In wave 1, manyof the children in the B cohort would not have hadall their teeth and only 16.3 per cent of children hadexperienced problems with their teeth at that time. Inwave 2, 21.9 per cent of children had experienced dentalproblems in the period since their previous interview. Bywave 3 this had further increased to 29.6 per cent.Table 8: Number of years children had dental problems,waves 1–3YearsPercentage of children0 59.51 22.02 11.73 6.8Note:Restricted to children whose primary carers gaveresponses to the dental problems question in all threewaves (n=1241)Figure 10: Children brushing their teeth at least once a day by age, per centNote: The slight increase at the age of 7 is probably due to the smaller numbers of children of that age.20 Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children | Key Summary Report from Wave 3