Oral Health in Rural Communities and Underserved Areas

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For many years, access to care has been one of the most commonly discussed issues related to public health (Perwira, 2014). In medicine, the service areas for primary care were determined with the help of a substantial body of research and a significant effort in the evaluation of the information about the patient origins and population density (McKernan, 2012). However, there still exists the need for this kind of research in the field of dentistry. Just like many other developed and developing countries, the United States of America faces the problem of poor access to care among different groups of the population; in turn, this issue is recognized as one of the factors associated with the overall prevalence of dental conditions among these population groups (Perwira, 2014; Razdan, Degenholtz, & Rubin, 2016).

The choice of topic fell on this particular issue due to the necessity of research on this topic arising from the fact that the insufficiency of access to dental care results in poor dental health that is, in turn, connected to a wide range of other problems such as diabetes, heart disease, the diminished quality of life, and limited chances of employment (Malecki et al., 2015). The purpose of the future research is to identify the specific causes of poor access to care and the groups of the population that are at risk of different oral health problems due to being underserved. Moreover, a discussion on this subject will involve different intervention strategies and solutions of the problem helping to minimize the adverse effects of poor access to care. The problem under discussion can be successfully resolved with the help of a well-developed framework and the appropriate management.

Poor access to dental care may result from a variety of different factors. Some of the most common contributors to the limited access to dental care are the low level of income, geographic location, and social status. Addressing the former factor, researchers found that the individuals who cannot afford the services of dentists and orthodontists are likely to develop oral health problems (Friedman & Mathu-Muju, 2014; Malecki et al., 2015). As for the second reason of poor access to dental care, there exist research studies confirming that the populations dwelling in rural areas located far away from dental clinics and centers are more likely to be underserved and experience untreated oral health issues (RHRC, 2015; Wendling, 2016; Fisher-Owens et al., 2016). Finally, discussing social status, scientists noticed that the socially isolated population groups, such as jail inmates, often have unmet dental care needs (Perwira, 2014). The other population groups affected by this factor can be migrants, homeless people, the individuals placed in mental health institutions, and the populations temporarily isolated due to the external impacts such as natural disasters. The limitations of access to care inflicted by each specific factor of the ones listed previously can be addressed with the help of versatile strategies allowing direct dental care and services to the areas and people in need.

There exist several different approaches to the solution of the problem of poor access to care that have been developed and applied over the recent years. One of such solutions is the model based on the portable and mobile provision of dental services. This model is rather flexible and can be employed for a variety of different objectives related to oral health; for example, it can be used for the delivery of dental care education, health promotion, the delivery of preventative care, the provision of dental services to the patients in homebound settings, the implementation of screenings, and treating people who are displaced or located in isolated areas (Ganavadiya, Chandrashekar, Goel, Hongal, & Jain, 2014). Another model designed for the purpose to address issues related to poor access to dental care is represented by the outreach programs. These programs are implemented by the academic institutions and engage the dental students as the service deliverers making the remote care a part of their educational program (Razdan et al., 2016). In that way, the students have an opportunity to obtain valuable practice working with the communities and improving their professional skills and, at the same time, the targeted underserved populations (low-income residents, isolated groups, and the individuals residing in areas located far away from the dental clinics) have a chance to receive the qualified low-price care.

To sum up, poor access to dental care is a prevalent problem in the developing and the developed countries. It is a serious public health concern because it is associated with a number of other problems affecting health, job opportunities, and the overall quality of life of the affected populations. The groups at risk include a large number of people whose access to quality dental care is limited for many different reasons. There exist solutions designed to address this problem in the forms of outreach programs and mobile dental services targeting the populations in need. In that way, the problem can be resolved given that it is thoroughly researched in terms of different environments and groups of the population in order to develop the best methods to address it.

References

Fisher-Owens, S., Soobader, M., Gansky, S., Isong, I., Weintraub, J., Platt, L., & Newacheck, P. (2016). Geography matters: State-level variation in children’s oral health care access and oral health status. Public Health, 134, 54-63.

Friedman, J., & Mathu-Muju, K. (2014). Dental therapists: Improving access to oral health care for underserved children. American Journal of Public Health, 104(6), 1005-1009.

Ganavadiya, R., Goel, P., Hongal, S., Jain, M., & Chandrashekar, B. (2014). Mobile and portable dental services catering to the basic oral health needs of the underserved population in developing countries: A proposed model. Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research, 4(3), 293.

Malecki, K., Wisk, L., Walsh, M., McWilliams, C., Eggers, S., & Olson, M. (2015). Oral health equity and unmet dental care needs in a population-based sample: Findings from the survey of the health of Wisconsin. American Journal of Public Health, 105(S3), S466-S474.

McKernan, S. C. (2012). Dental service areas: Methodologies and applications for evaluation of access to care. Web.

Perwira, I. (2014). Improving the role of health volunteers to better support primary health care in a remote area in Central Highland of Papua, Indonesia. Web.

Razdan, M., Degenholtz, H. B., & Rubin, R. W. (2016).Oral health outreach programs – can they address the disparities in access to dental care? Journal of Oral Health and Community Dentistry, 10(1), 14-19.

RHRC. (2015). Dentist supply, dental care utilization, and oral health among rural and urban U.S. residents. Final Report, 135, 1-13.

Wendling, A. L. (2016). Oral health status and oral hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices of jail inmates. Web.

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Oral Health in Rural Communities and Underserved Areas

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