User:Liz20151222/sandbox

History
Australians that were born after 1967 were named the ‘Fluoride Generation’ as they had been exposed to fluoridated water and had been using toothpaste that contained fluoride for all their lives. It was found that from this influence of fluoride, this generation experienced a much higher need for fillings or extractions and high levels of untreated dental decay, than compared to their parents.

This has furthermore has lead to a lack of oral care taken by adolescents today, as even though young Australians are reported to experience much healthier life conditions than older generation, they still seem to carry the majority of the countries dental disease.

Statistics

 * Indigenous Australians score worse on almost every health indicator relative to their non-Indigenous counterparts
 * Clinical examinations found that 44.4% of teenagers overall had caries experience in at least one tooth, while 10.6% of the sample had experienced severe caries.
 * Severe dental caries was found to be significantly related to a variety of factors, including family income, fluoridation status, tooth brushing behaviour and sugary drink consumption.
 * Those who are in a lower income group have a higher level of caries experience than those in higher groups.
 * Tooth-brushing behaviour was also examined by gender, with females brushing significantly more often than males

Habits
Research has shown that there are critical periods in a person’s life where long-term health related behaviours should be established for the long run, one of these periods being adolescence. As a person enters into their early teenage years, it is important to establish positive oral hygiene habits, as it will allow for positive and healthy outcomes later on when they enter into their adulthood.

Diet
Due to alcohol consumption, sugary drinks, junk food consumption and smoking adolescents’ dental hygiene is being affected. Negative eating habits, such as eating disorders, have also been found as a result in oral health consequences, such as tooth erosion and dental caries, as the influence of changes in lifestyle and diet can have effect. Despite the fact the signs are evident orally, dentists have little knowledge and experience in managing eating disorder patients. Dental and other health professionals often decide to not put any suspicion on eating disorders being a cause of dental disease, due to the fact they may lose a patient. Nonetheless, it has been frequently reported that of oral manifestations of eating disorders result in problems such as tooth erosion and decay.

In a study done it was found that Among a the severe risk group for eating disorders, 45% of adolescents were affected by tooth erosion and 80% by dental caries compared with 8.8 and 51.3%, against a group of adults. Therefore Adolescents with severe risk of having an eating disorder had higher chances for tooth erosion.

Financial
As these adolescents get older and begin to become more financially independent, it was found in a 2010 study, done by the Australian Dental Journal, that majority of the study recipients reported that the financial costs of dental care prevented them from seeking care as often as they would like (61.1%). Therefore resulting in a lack of dental hygiene and possibly ending in dental disease. Some young adults face further barriers with paying for dental care. Those who are not eligible for free or subsidized care or government funded adult care, must therefore use a private dental care service, however most will not not be able to afford, resulting in poor oral health.