Although public awareness campaigns on avulsed teeth have been mounted in the past, no study has investigated the knowledge parents possess of the protocol for the management of this dental emergency. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate, by means of a questionnaire, the parental awareness of the emergency management of avulsed teeth in children. Over 2000 parents were surveyed during a four-week period at 20 suburban vacation swimming centres. The results indicated that almost two-thirds of respondents would attempt replantation of an avulsed tooth but further questioning showed they did not know the correct procedures. Thirty-three per cent of respondents were unaware of any after-hours emergency dental services. Ninety-two per cent felt they should seek professional help urgently following an avulsion injury, but their knowledge of transport media for the tooth was poor. Only 5 per cent knew that milk was the medium of choice for both washing and transporting an avulsed tooth. Ninety per cent of parents surveyed had never received advice on what to do in the event of an accident where a permanent tooth was avulsed. This study revealed the need for educational campaigns aimed at parents to increase their knowledge of the emergency procedures required when the tooth is avulsed.

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1 Root-feeding insects are now considered to play a greater role in ecosystem processes than previously thought, yet little is known about their specific interactions with host plants compared with above-ground insect herbivores. Methodological difficulties associated with studying these insects in the soil, together with the lack of empirical and theoretical frameworks, have conventionally hindered progress in this area. 2 This paper reviews recent empirical and theoretical developments that have been adopted for studying root-feeding insects, focusing on the non-invasive techniques of X-ray tomography and acoustic field detection and how these can be integrated with new mathematical modelling approaches. 3 X-ray tomography has been used for studying the movements of several insects within the soil and has helped to characterize the host plant location behaviour of the clover root weevil, Sitona lepidus . Acoustic detection of soil insects has been used in various managed systems, ranging from nursery containers to citrus groves. 4 Mathematical modelling plays a complementary role for investigating root-feeding insects, illustrated by a number of published models. A model is presented for the movement of S. lepidus in the soil, which suggests that these insects undergo Lévy movements, similar to those recently demonstrated for above-ground organisms. 5 The future directions and challenges for investigating root-feeding insects are discussed in the context of the wider ecosystem, incorporating both above and below-ground organisms.