A Study of Circumstancial and Perceptual Barriers as it Relates to Dental Facility Attendance

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In todays world oral health has taken a back seat. As a result, we have let the state of oral health deteriorate. Dental caries and tooth decay is the most prevalent chronic disease in children in large part due to poor dental facility attendance. The dentist's office is where we receive a professional check up, a deep cleaning of the mouth, and learn more about how we should be taking care of our teeth. Becuase people have neglected to attend, their oral health has suffered. 

 

The big question I posed is "why?" Why do people not go to the dentist? I developed a survey with several scales to study the relationships between anxiety, insurance, poverty, perceptions, and dental facility attendance. The results came through and found a few relationships that are less suprising and several that make you think. Overall it was found that oral health perceptions are very skewed and play too large a role in dental facility attendance to keep them that way.