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OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper was to describe results of a public health-administered, provincial dental survey of children aged 4-6 years old in British Columbia, and assess the changes in rates of dental caries geographically and by neighbourhood socio-economic status between baseline (2006/07) and follow-up data collection (2009/10). METHOD: The study design involved two retrospective cohorts of kindergarten children who received a public health-administered dental assessment in the years 2006/07 and 2009/10. Neighbourhood socio-economic status was measured by an index created from Canadian Census and Tax Filer data sets. The dental outcomes included previous decay experience, untreated visible decay, and urgent treatment needs. RESULTS: The analysis comprised dental outcomes for 35,602 kindergarten children in 2006/07 and 35,215 children in 2009/10. There was a modest decrease in dental decay rates between surveys, with rates of decay experience--previous and untreated--of 38.9% and 36.7% respectively. However, there were disparities, with almost 50% of children with dental decay in the most socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods, and approximately 30% with dental decay in the least disadvantaged areas. CONCLUSION: The kindergarten dental survey had extensive coverage, was at the population level, and enabled analysis of change in early childhood dental decay rates over time and by geography. Although overall rates improved, dental health inequalities persisted in both survey years at both regional and neighbourhood levels. KEY WORDS: Dental caries; oral health; child; trends; surveillance; British Columbia OBJECTIF: Decrire les resultats d'une enquete dentaire provinciale de sante publique menee aupres des enfants de 4 a 6 ans en Colombie-Britannique, et evaluer les changements dans les taux de carie dentaire sur le plan geographique et selon le statut socioeconomique du quartier entre la base de reference (2006-2007) et la collecte des donnees de suivi (2009-2010). METHOD: Le protocole d'etude comportait deux cohortes retrospectives d'enfants de la maternelle ayant recu un examen dentaire administre par la sante publique en 2006-2007 et en 2009-2010. Le statut socioeconomique du quartier a ete mesure selon un indice cree a partir du Recensement canadien et des jeux de donnees des declarants de l'impot. Les resultats dentaires etaient l'experience prealable des caries, les caries visibles non traitees et les besoins urgents de traitement. RESULTATS: L'analyse a porte sur les resultats dentaires de 35 602 enfants de la maternelle en 2006-2007 et de 35 215 enfants en 2009-2010. Il y a eu une baisse modeste des taux de carie dentaire entre les deux enquetes, avec des taux d'experience des caries--anterieures et non traitees--de 38,9 % et de 36,7 %, respectivement. Toutefois, il y a eu des disparites: pres de 50 % des enfants avaient des caries dentaires dans les quartiers les plus defavorises sur le plan socioeconomique, contre environ 30 % dans les quartiers les moins defavorises. CONCLUSION: L'enquete dentaire aupres des enfants de la maternelle avait une vaste couverture, elle a ete menee a l'echelle de la population, et elle a permis d'analyser les changements spatiotemporels dans les taux de carie dentaire des jeunes enfants. Bien que les taux globaux se soient ameliores, les inegalites sur le plan de la sante dentaire ont subsiste au cours des deux annees de l'enquete, tant a l'echelle regionale qu'a celle des quartiers. MOTS CLES: caries dentaires; sante buccodentaire; enfant; tendances; surveillance; Colombie-Britannique, doi: 10.17269/CJPH.106.4918 Dental caries (tooth decay) is the most common chronic disease in childhood--five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever. (1) The etiology [...]

State funding for full-day kindergarten programs is rare. Only Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Nebraska, New York and Wisconsin fund all-day programs at a higher level than half-day programs and at a [...]