Utilization of dental services for foreign children in Korea

Abstract

With the globalization and economic development, the number of foreigners in South Korea has been more than doubled during last two decades. This study aims at investigation of the utilization status of dental services by foreign children living in Korea and their level of satisfaction, thereby establishing appropriate dental health service and improving related policies for foreign children living in Korea.

We developed a structured questionnaire with 35 questions: 14 questions relevant to demographic characteristic and 21 questions concerning oral hygiene and dental experience of the child. The participants of this study were from various groups of foreigners, and 391 questionnaires were used for statistical analysis.

The participants of this study do not reflect the actual characteristics of foreigners in Korea, regarding nationality distribution and level of socioeconomic level. The nationality distribution of the participants consisted of high percentage of countries from African continent (23.6%), which was as high as the North America (24.1%).

The participants of this study showed low dental health knowledge concerning oral hygiene and prevention of dental caries. The participants reported very low level of use of floss and fluoride treatment with the rate of 18.9% and 21%, respectively. These results may result from high percentage of participants from Africa, where oral health care system is not well established yet.

Utilization of dental health service and type of dental clinics were similar before and after coming to Korea. The participants showed overall satisfaction regarding the quality of dental treatment and friendliness of staff, and many of them answered treatment fee and communication need to be improved.

Expansion of obligatory infants and youth dental health checks and dental health education towards foreign children is needed to improve the oral health and prevent dental caries regarding the foreign children living in Korea.