Community Dental Health

cover art

Cover Date:
September 2016
Print ISSN:
0265 539X
Vol:
33
Issue:
3

Understanding avoidance and non-attendance among adolescents in dental care - an integrative review

Objective: To review articles exploring manifestations of avoidance of or non-attendance to dental care, to identify background and concomitant factors specifically associated with dental avoidance among adolescents. Methods: PubMed, CINAHL and PsychINFO were searched using MeSH terms and keywords covering dental avoidance, non-attendance and non-utilization. Searches were limited to peer-reviewed studies in English, published in 1994­–2014. Twenty-one research articles were included. Data were extracted, ordered, coded, categorized, and summarized according to the integrative review method. Results: The identified factors formed three common major themes: Environmental, Individual and Situational factors. Only seven studies, all from Sweden or Norway, investigated factors associated with dental
avoidance. The remaining 14 studies were geographically widespread. Regarding avoidance, the main focus was found to be on individual and situational factors, while environmental factors were more often investigated for the outcome non-attendance. Conclusions: Although a wide variety of environmental, individual and situational factors could be summarized in this review, factors specifically associated with dental avoidance in a context of free dental care still need to be investigated. The possible impacts of cultural background, of tobacco, alcohol or drug use and of psycho-social circumstances deserve further research. Clinical implications of today’s knowledge may be to pay attention to the adolescents’ individual background and everyday life situation, to offer agreed and individualized treatment, taking
fears and attitudes into consideration, to avoid painful treatments, and to be alert for early signs of avoidance.

Key words: dental health services, health care utilization, adolescent, review

doi:10.1922/CDH_3829Fägerstad13

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
195
Page End
207
Authors
A. Fägerstad, J. Windahl, K. Arnrup

Articles from this issue

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  1. Editorial: Selling a sugar tax: the sweet smell of success?
  2. 174
  3. 176

  1. The teaching of Dental Public Health – 50 years on
  2. 177
  3. 180

  1. The teaching of Dental Public Health and its relation to Children’s Dentistry
  2. 181
  3. 184

  1. Challenges identified in a pilot outreach dental service for Traveller children in Hackney, East London
  2. 185
  3. 188

  1. Lay public’s use of a support group for general dental problems
  2. 189
  3. 194

  1. Understanding avoidance and non-attendance among adolescents in dental care - an integrative review
  2. 195
  3. 207

  1. Variations in survival time for amalgam and resin composite restorations: a population based cohort analysis
  2. 208
  3. 212

  1. Impact of providing free preventive dental products without health workers’ counselling on infants’ tooth-brushing and bottle-feeding termination practices: a randomised controlled trial
  2. 213
  3. 217

  1. The dental public health implications of cosmetic dentistry: a scoping review of the literature
  2. 218
  3. 224

  1. Development of life story experience (LSE) scales for migrant dentists in Australia: a sequential qualitative-quantitative study
  2. 225
  3. 231

  1. Dental pain and its determinants in an adult population in Tehran, Iran, Urban HEART-2
  2. 232
  3. 236