Culture and Oral Health

Book excerpt: Document from the year 2015 in the subject Medicine - Dentistry, , course: MDS, language: English, abstract: Culture plays an important role in human societies. It lays down norms of behavior and provides mechanisms which secure for an individual, his personal and social survival. Culture includes everything which one generation can tell, convey or hand down to the next. Culture has three parts. It is an experience that is learned, shared and transmitted. Acculturation refers to culture contact. There are various ways by which the acculturation can occur, like in the way of trade and commerce, industrialization, propagation of religion, education and conquest to name some. Every culture has its own customs which may have significant influence on health and oral health. The increased incidence of lung cancer because smoking, cirrhosis because of alcoholism in many developed countries, the surge in the incidence of oral cancer in India due to pan chewing habits are some classical examples to demonstrate the influence of culture on health and oral health. It is now fairly established that the cultural factors are deeply involved in the whole way of life, like in the matters of nutrition, immunization, personal hygiene, family planning, child rearing, seeking early medical care, disposal of solid wastes and human excreta etc. All cultural practices are not harmful. Every human has the culturally ingrained habit of cleaning or brushing the teeth early in the morning. The use of soap for personal hygiene, oil massaging, exposure of the new born to sunlight etc are some cultural practices that needs to be encouraged. The inclination to get into the habits of smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction in the name of civilization among the younger generation needs to be countered at the earliest, otherwise, it may have a huge deleterious impact on the health status of the generation to come. Keeping in mind, the very significant role, the culture plays on health and oral health, this topic of library dissertation is taken up to review the available literature on effects of key cultural factors on health and oral health.