The Impact of Oral Health Seeking Behavior during Covid-19 Outbrake toward Dental Caries Severity

Abstract

Most Indonesian people have a specificculture of oral health seeking behavior. They are only visit their dentist when they felt pain in their teeth or mouth, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to their anxiety about the Covid-19 virus infection, and in addition of the government's policy that limiting visits to health center, people to choose another choice.This study aimed to assess the effects of oral health seeking behavior during COVID-19 on dental caries severity in the Sumbersari, Jember district community.An analytical observational study was conducted with a cross sectional approach in March 2021 atSumbersari District, Jember Regency. From 37.347 of 26-45 years old population, there were 101 involved in this study.Simple random sampling was conducted. Their demographic characteristics, oral health seeking behavior, and dental caries severity were recorded and analyzed descriptively, then continued with the Ordinal Regression test.The age of respondents was in the age range of 26-35 years (81.2%) and 55.4% of respondents were women.Their education levelmostlyundergraduate (61.4%). Assessing oral health behavior revealed that 77.23% of respondents did not visit professional dental services and 75.25% of them experienced caries with moderate to severe severity. The ordinal regression test showed that there was significant effect of oral health seeking behaviortoward dental caries severity.There is an impact of oral health seeking behavior on the severity of dental caries during the out brake of Covid-19 pandemic.