Inuvik (Feb 02/04) - "Open wide" can often be the two most frightening words for a child to hear when visiting the dentist for the first time.

That's because children as young as two years old are getting cavities filled and teeth extracted during their first visit to the dentist in Beaufort Delta and Sahtu communities, said Gerry Uswak, chief executive officer for the Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Authority (IRHSSA).

"(The preschool teeth) have already been damaged by the time they get to school," said Uswak, adding most preventive care in this region is focused on school-aged children.

While Uswak knows there is extreme decay in younger children, he and his staff don't have region-specific data to back it up.

So IRHSSA is launching a regional oral health census to gather that information.

The census will be conducted over the next two and a half months and aims to determine the dental health of children between two and five years old living in the Beaufort Delta and Sahtu regions.

Uswak hopes to determine how many children have dental cavities, the number of cavities each child has and which communities need the most help.

"For the first time we'll have a sense of the extent and severity of dental disease in this region," said Uswak, adding a census with this focus has never been done in the territory and rarely in the rest of Canada.

Visiting all communities

Simon Jozzy, the regional dental program officer with the IRHSSA, will start the census over the next few weeks, starting in Inuvik.

He hopes to see the mouths of between 500 and 600 two- to five-year-old children in all the communities by the end. His data will be used to design programs and services specific to the need.

"I want to show (the parents) the condition of their own kids' mouths and try to give them a bit of education about prevention," said Jozzy.

"This will be based on practical science. It is being collected to make change," said Uswak.

"It won't be another study sitting on the shelf."

The information will also be used as a reference point for future regional census studies, said Debra McLeod, director of population health and strategic initiatives for the IRHSSA.

The census will take place at the local health centres. Exact dates have yet to be determined.