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A previous study has shown five-year-old children of parents originating from Turkey or Morocco to have twice as much dmfs as children of parents from The Netherlands, Surinam or various other countries. In the present study, other risk indicators and factors for the prevalence of caries amongst these children were studied by interviewing their parents at home in their mother tongue about their preventive dental behaviour. Results showed educational level of the parents, and gender of the child to be important risk indicators, apart from ethnicity. Risk factors were the age of the child, at which the parents had started to brush the teeth of the child, the use of fluoride tablets and the regularity of the brushing behaviour.

The aim of this study was threefold: first, to assess the oral health of Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, Dutch and "other" 5-yr-old children living in Amsterdam; second, to identify risk indicators for caries, in addition to ethnicity; and third, to identify potential risk factors related to differences in caries experience in these children. Results showed the mean dmfs scores of Turkish and Moroccan children to be much higher than that of the Dutch and Surinamese children; 8.1 and 8.2 versus 3.6 and 3.4, respectively. The educational level of the parents and the gender of the children were important risk indicators, in addition to ethnicity. The age of the child at which the parents had started to brush their child's teeth, the use of fluoride tablets and the regularity of the brushing behavior in the past could be identified as potential risk factors.