Oral Health‐Related Quality of Life of Western Australian Refugee Children With Childhood Caries

OBJECTIVES: Dental caries remains the most common chronic childhood condition and in Australia persists as a leading cause of potentially preventable hospitalisation. Despite various public health initiatives and improvements in oral health among the wider community, significant disparities exist among refugee families due to the unique challenges they face. Beyond the effects on a tooth level, dental caries profoundly influences a child's oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) which encompasses the physical, psychological and social impacts oral health has on daily life, an area that is often overlooked. This study explores the OHRQoL of Western Australian refugee children who experience childhood caries. METHODS: This nested study was conducted within a larger randomised controlled trial (ACTRN12616000456459) investigating caries arrest in newly resettled refugee children. Participants were recruited from the tertiary paediatric Refugee Health Service (RHS), where demographic information, clinical dental examination findings and OHRQoL data were collected using the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS). Non-parametric methods were employed to assess differences in total and domain-specific ECOHIS scores across stratification groups, including caries burden, caries depth, age and geographical region. RESULTS: A total of 223 children were included with a mean age of 4.6 years. Approximately, 65% of the children had high caries burden (> 5 affected teeth), and 160 out of 223 (72%) had frank dentine lesions. The mean (SD) total ECOHIS score was 6.52 (6.68). Parental distress had the highest mean score among the ECOHIS domains (1.79), while the symptoms domain score was unexpectedly low (0.96), despite participants experiencing severe and extensive caries. CONCLUSION: Refugee children experience a high burden of caries, yet reported symptoms were low, suggesting under recognition of oral pain. Conversely, high parental distress scores reveal the significant psychological impact on families. These findings highlight the need for early, culturally appropriate dental care within a family-centred model of care.