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Figure 5.5.6 Hospital dental procedure rates for children aged 2–14 years,by type of procedure and remoteness area, 2002-03a, b, c, d, e1000Indigenous (major city)Indigenous (remote)Non-Indigenous (major city)Non-Indigenous (remote)Per 100 000 children8006004002000Extraction Pulpal care Restoration Othera Error bars represent 95 per cent confidence intervals around each estimate. b Extraction procedures areperformed to remove decayed, damaged, malformed, or malpositioned teeth. c Pulpal care refers toprocedures carried out on the soft inner structure of a tooth, consisting of nerve and blood vessels.d Restoration procedures involve placing a material in a tooth to restore function and morphology when toothstructure has been lost due to decay or fracture (generally, because of extensive caries), or to improve theaesthetics of the tooth. e Other includes the provision of splints, crowns or bridges.Source: Jamieson and Roberts-Thomson (2006); table 5A.5.11.• Indigenous children in major cities and remote areas experienced greater rates of‘extraction’ procedures than non-Indigenous children in the same locations. Therate of ‘extraction’ procedures for Indigenous children living in remote areaswas nearly twice the rate for non-Indigenous children (figure 5.5.6). The rate for‘restoration’ procedures for Indigenous children living in remote areas was 1.5times greater than the rate for non-Indigenous children (figure 5.5.6).• For ‘pulpal care’ and ‘other’ procedures, the rates for Indigenous children livingin major cities were lower than the rates for non-Indigenous children(figure 5.5.6).5.6 Future directions in dataHearing impedimentsThere are only limited data available on the burden of hearing loss in Indigenouschildren. Comprehensive, up-to-date data need to be collected to enable theassessment of the type and severity of ear infections in the Indigenous population.5.48 OVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007