Oral Health Myths among General Population at Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia

Background:

Taboos or myths have got a connection from the history where there was no scientific understanding about the concepts of health they are part of culture and information shared or communicated by a number of people. Understanding myths and misbelieves are important to provide good oral care with health education to the people.

Aim:

The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of oral health myths and to find its association between the demographic factors of general public in the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia.

Methodology:

Questionnaire consisting of demographic details and myths about oral health problems was sent through Google forms. The link of questionnaire was sent through social media and requested to send the link to their friends and relatives.

Results:

About 50.71% of the study participants were against to myths and 23.48% of study participants were toward myths. The response in terms of agreement, disagreement or do not know was statistically not significant according to age, gender, or education.

Conclusion:

The prevalence of myths about dental treatment is almost 50%. This population needs to be educated to know the fact and to take action to rectify them about dental treatments.

[Misbelieves about medical communication]

Despite a growing body of evidence about the importance of good communication skills in healthcare, every day practice shows several common myths or false believes about it. In the opinion of the authors these misbelieves are often behind doctors' or students' negative attitudes, which hinder the quality improvement or shift towards patient-centered approach. The scope of this article is to present the most frequently heard misbelieves from our empirical experiences in line with the evidence derived from current research data.