“Have You Received Appropriate Care and What Does That Mean to You?” Exploring Oral Health Care and its Effect on Wellbeing for Newly Arrived Refugees and the Perspectives of their Oral Health Care Providers

Abstract

Currently there is little known of the oral health practices, beliefs, and experiences of the refugee population in Australia, particularly those from the Middle East. Although the health status and condition of people with a refugee background has been increasingly documented, an obvious paucity of exploration into the population’s own experiences of oral health and health care services remains. There is also strong scientific evidence that the oral health status of individuals, especially children and other complex needs groups, directly influences overall health and wellbeing. This paper seeks to gain insight into the importance of both oral health and oral health care experiences (that is, experiences at the dentist or with other oral health professionals) from the perspective of 20 service recipients and six oral health service providers. The data from 26 semi-structured interviews was examined using thematic analysis. Participants with refugee backgrounds highlighted that their experiences of oral health care had both direct and indirect effects on their overall wellbeing. It is evidenced in Australia that the provision of culturally appropriate health care is lacking, however this was not supported by the current study which rather highlighted the system level issues that prevent appropriate healthcare outcomes. Furthermore, this study found that oral health care professional participants had a keen and sympathetic understanding of the needs of their refugee patients. This exploratory study has added to the current literature surrounding oral health and wellbeing and, distinctively, has addressed this complex relationship from the personal perspectives of people with refugee backgrounds and their health care practitioners. Keywords: Oral health, wellbeing, refugee, qualitative research