Community dentistry and oral epidemiology
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Mar 2021
Emergency department use for nontraumatic dental conditions among children and adolescents: NEDS 2014-2015.
Despite great efforts to improve paediatric dental care access in the last two decades, the use of emergency departments (ED) for dental conditions among children that are more appropriately addressed in dental offices remains a public health concern in the United States. We examined factors associated with ED visits for nontraumatic dental conditions or NTDCs and ED visits for any other reason among children and adolescents. ⋯ The ED use for NTDCs is more common among late adolescents, Medicaid and uninsured groups. Examining and implementing new approaches that improve access to routine dental care for these groups may help in reducing inefficient ED use related to NTDCs.
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Feb 2021
Top 100 most-cited papers in core dental public health journals: bibliometric analysis.
This quali-quantitative study analysed the 100 most-cited papers in core dental public health (DPH) journals focusing on understanding international knowledge production. ⋯ Top 100 most-cited papers in core DPH journals were predominantly observational studies from Anglo-Saxon countries. Top 100 most-cited papers in core DPH journals tend to be cross-sectional studies carried out in the United States with highest citation in health services research. Locker D, Petersen PE and Sheiham A are a landmark for DPH field.
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Dec 2020
ReviewWhat is intersectionality and why is it important in oral health research?
This paper is the second of two reviews that seek to stimulate debate on new and neglected avenues in oral health research. The first commissioned narrative review, "Inclusion oral health: Advancing a theoretical framework for policy, research and practice", published in February 2020, explored social exclusion, othering and intersectionality. In it, we argued that people who experience social exclusion face a "triple threat": they are separated from mainstream society, stigmatized by the dental profession, and severed from wider health and social care systems because of the disconnection between oral health and general health. ⋯ Our working definition of intersectionality, requiring the simultaneous appreciation of multiple social identities, an examination of power and inequality, and a recognition of changing social contexts, then sets the scene for examining existing applications of intersectionality in oral health research. A critique of the sparse application of intersectionality in oral health research highlights missed opportunities and shortcomings related to paradigmatic and epistemological differences, a lack of robust theoretically engaged quantitative and mixed methods research, and a failure to sufficiently consider power from an intersectionality perspective. The final section proposes a framework to guide future oral health research that embraces an intersectionality agenda consisting of descriptive research to deepen our understanding of intersectionality, and transformative research to tackle social injustice and inequities through participatory research and co-production.
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Jun 2019
Oral health and behaviours of people living with Multiple Sclerosis in Australia.
The literature describing the oral health of people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is scant and the findings equivocal. The aim of this study was to describe the oral health and oral self-care behaviours of people living with MS and compare it to the Australian population. ⋯ People with MS have a greater oral health burden, demonstrated by their poorer self-reported oral health than the Australian adult population. Furthermore, they experience high rates of toothache, mouth dryness, teeth sensitivity, change of taste and orofacial pain. These findings are contrary to their self-reported good oral self-care and dental attendance habits and suggest some of the oral health impacts are due to MS rather than dental behaviours.
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Community Dent Oral Epidemiol · Aug 2017
The value of a combined word recognition and knowledge measure to understand characteristics of our patients' oral health literacy.
The objective of the analysis was to examine the association between sociodemographic and dental understanding and utilization characteristics and lower oral health literacy (HL) and knowledge. ⋯ The analysis confirmed that pronunciation of medical and dental terms may not fully reflect comprehension and revealed that understanding both patients' sociodemographic and dental understanding and utilization factors, such as transportation to the dental office associated with lower oral HL and knowledge, could help the profession develop appropriate clear language programmes to improve access to dental care for vulnerable populations.