Motivators and barriers to oral hygiene self‐care among adolescents in Malaysia: A qualitative study

Abstract

Oral health is a crucial component of general health and well-being.Having good oral health would impact positively on the overall health and quality of life. 1 Advocating the importance of good oral health should begin early in life as studies have shown that children and adolescents with good oral health would tend to develop healthy teeth in their adult life. 2,3 To achieve good oral health, having good oral hygiene practice is essential. Although oral diseases such as dental caries and gingivitis are prevalent among children and adolescents, they are also highly preventable with proper oral hygiene care. Brushing teeth with fluoridated toothpaste twice a day is an important oral hygiene habit to prevent dental caries and periodontal disease. 4,5 Evidence shows that adolescents who brush their teeth once or more daily until the age of 12 would be more likely to retain this habit until

Self‐determination theory guided oral self‐care training for adolescents—A cluster randomised controlled trial

“…In the present study, the oral health promotion facilitator was a dental professional. As the cost of having a dental professional in schools for reinforcement sessions would be relatively high, the responsibility for these sessions could be delegated to trained school staff, public health workers or parent representatives championing oral health care (Ab Mumin et al, 2021). Having schools take on the added responsibility of reinforcing oral self‐care in adolescents may also be beneficial for those most in need of such behavioural interventions, as our lost‐to‐follow‐up analysis demonstrated that adolescents with worse baseline oral self‐care tended to withdraw from the study.…”

Oral Health Beliefs, Perceptions and Utilisation of Oral Health Care Services among the Indigenous People (Orang Asli) in Pahang, Malaysia: A Qualitative Study

“…FGD uses open-ended questions to explore the 'how' and 'why' of a particular issue, which then progresses to an in-depth understanding of the context's culture from the study participant's point of view (12,13). The FGD method has been widely used in healthcare studies such as medicine and nursing and, more recently, in dentistry, especially in the use of a guided group discussion format (14). FGD also elicits perceptions, ideas, opinions and thoughts about specific areas of concern, providing rich data from multiple perspectives.…”