The Importance Of Cultural Competency In Dental Care

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Introduction: Due to the growing economy, population diversity is significantly increasing and it is urging health care providers to understand and communicate with diverse cultural and ethnic populations. From here, the term cultural competency was originated and it’s defined as a” set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations”.(1)
Health care providers need to treat patients holistically with respect of their cultural values and traditions, which may interfere and sometimes complicate a recommended treatment, not to mention a significant disparities in oral and general health in these minorities of cultural population have been noticed.(2,3)
It is important to mention that perception of seeking professional care varies significantly among different ethnic and cultural groups resulting in poor oral health and negligence of seeking professional care. Therefore, health care quality and effectiveness require a thorough understanding of traditions, cultural values, attitude and background of the diverse cultural groups seeking dental care.(2)
Literature review: …show more content…

The two cohort groups were given a similar questionnaire. The study found that eighty percent of UBC students and recent graduates have encountered culturally different groups than their own, fifty percent of the eighty percent admitted that their communication was not effective. The study reported that the overall self-perception of cultural competency is complex and multifaceted and implementing cultural competency topics with interactive teaching modalities into dental curricula was highly recommended by study

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