Outcomes are reported from a health equity audit undertaken in County Durham, England, to support the targeting of resources to meet the needs of patients from deprived communities, in areas where levels of poor oral health remain higher than the rest of the population as a whole. The researchers matched postcodes of 224,107 patients in County Durham to Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) for each practice. Deprivation scores were identified for each LSOA. The postcode of 59 dental practices was matched to the LSOA and the practice population divided into quintiles from the most to the least deprived areas. The more deprived the area in which a dental practice was located, the greater the proportion of the practice population accessing care from the most deprived quintile. The size of the practice alone was not directly related to meeting the needs of a more deprived population.
