Why People Seek Dental Care: A Review of Present Knowledge

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Abstract
A group of studies were analyzed to determine why only a very small proportion of the population visits dentists frequently on a regular basis. This analysis indicated that while people feel susceptible to dental disease, they feel that dental problems are not very serious, and that taking dental action is not very important. It was found that many people seemed to know that seeking dental care was the correct thing to do, but they did not act as if this knowledge was relevant to their behavior. Certain possible barriers to dental care were considered. No conclusive data were found in the existent studies to demonstrate that failure to seek dental care could be explained either by situational barriers, or despite psychoanalytic theories, by psychological barriers. The types of studies needed to fill in the many gaps about why people do or do not seek regular preventive dental care were suggested.

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