Indian Society Attitude Towards Oral health

Oral health has a vital impact on the quality of life, appearance and self-esteem of the people. Regular and timely visits help in early diagnosis and treatment of the oral diseases.

Dentists say that dental care utilization is the percentage of the population who use dental services over a specified period of time. There are reports presented by the best dentists in India claiming that the patients visit the dentist when in pain and never bother to return for follow-up in most cases. To improve the status of oral health in India, sufficient knowledge of the way the individuals use health services and the factors predictive of this behaviour is essential.

The interest in developing models explaining the utilization of dental services has increased. Issues such as dental anxiety, price, income, the distance a person travels to get care and preference for preservation of teeth are treated as barriers in the regular dental care. But in order to improve the situation of oral health, the dental surgeons and dental health workers have to play an adequate role in facilitating public enlightenment that people may appreciate the need for regular dental care and make adequate and proper use of the available dental care facilities.

India is home to hundreds of dental colleges. Even with such a large workforce, most of the people in India still do not have access to the basic oral health care. According to a survey, the dentist to population ratio is 1:10,000 in urban areas whereas it drastically falls to 1:150,000 in rural areas. Although, dental care is a part of the primary health care in India, dental services are available in very few states at the primary health care level. The dentist in India tell us that patients are not covered any kind of insurance and generally pay out of their pockets to get treatment both from the public and private dentists.

Hence, the state of oral healthcare in India is not a pleasant one. Keeping the unique factors such as social mindset, prevalent beliefs and customs in mind, India should understand the importance of oral health and make people understand. According to the dentists in India, proper oral health programmes is the need of the hour.