Look at my pearly white teeth: Exploring adolescents' oral health behavior.

Informed by grounded theory, this study explored adolescent oral health behaviors to determine what factors influence them and to develop a substantive theory explaining the social process behind the behaviors identified. Multiple types of data were collected and analyzed simultaneously: demographic and oral health questionnaires, 16 individual interviews, eight small group discussions, field notes, and investigator memoing. Participants were 37 Midwestern adolescents aged 13-18, and most were White or African-American females 14 years of age whose parents had at least a high school education. While more than half reported using mouthwash and brushing their teeth regularly, almost all participants described their behavior in terms of relationships, confidence, and attractiveness rather than health. Top motivators were habits learned as children and the desire to be attractive or "kissable." To reflect teens' understanding of "healthy" as good-looking, and their primary concern not with having healthy teeth but with being attractive to peers, our model of the basic social process of adolescent oral health behavior is called "Look at my Pearly White Teeth." Understanding the actual motivations behind adolescent oral health behavior can help public health administrators develop more effective interventions, especially for teens who did not learn healthy habits as children.

Parental Consent and Access to Oral Health Care for Adolescents.

While most states allow minors 12 years and older to consent to services for contraception, prenatal care, or sexually transmitted infections, the same adolescents are required to have parental consent for even preventive oral health care. Many adolescents are denied access to preventive oral health care because of the challenge of securing parental consent for care when parents are unwilling, unable, or unavailable to consent. Our purpose is to examine the barriers to preventive oral health care for U.S. adolescents related to parental consent laws, explore the issues surrounding these laws, and recommend policy changes. We explain the current range and status of consent laws across the country and arguments for parental consent law as it now stands. We discuss the difficulty of applying general medical consent law to preventive oral health care, neuroscience research on cognitive capacity among adolescents, and the distinction between parental consent and adolescent assent. We recommend replacing required "opt-in" consent with simpler "opt-out" consent; developing a tool for assessing adolescent decision-making capacity; advocating for consent laws that apply specifically to preventive oral health care; and empowering school nurses to lead local, state, and nationwide policy and legislation efforts.

A systematic review of oral health behavior research in american adolescents.

Despite improvements in prevention, oral diseases are a problem among adolescents, linked to poor health outcomes and poor school performance. Little is known about adolescent oral health behavior. This systematic review describes factors that influence oral health behavior in adolescents. Inclusion criteria for the literature search were American children aged 12-19 and research on oral health behavior. Articles (n = 353) were retrieved, eight met the inclusion criteria, and of these, six were descriptive and two were experimental studies. The matrix method, critical appraisal, and content analysis produced themes across the studies. Participants were primarily African Americans and Hispanics of both genders, of lower socioeconomic status, aged 12-19. Findings suggest that ethnicity, race, and gender may influence oral health behavior in adolescents and that interventions have an effect. Research is needed to explore what other factors may influence oral health behavior in adolescents, long-term health outcomes, and school performance.

A cross-sectional study of Hispanic and Latina/o/x/e individuals' acute coronary syndrome symptom knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs.

BACKGROUND: Little attention has been placed on language proficiency as a potential variable affecting ACS symptom knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. OBJECTIVES: To compare the ACS symptom knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of Hispanic and Latina/o/x/e individuals proficient in English and in those only proficient in Spanish. Secondary aims were to determine if there were differences in ACS symptom knowledge, attitudes, or beliefs based on participants' previous exposure to ACS symptom information and to evaluate instrument characteristics of the new Spanish version of the ACS Response Index. METHODS: This cross-sectional, comparative study included participants (N = 99) from a community-based clinic in Illinois. Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to ACS symptoms were measured using the ACS Response Index. RESULTS: The average participant was 39.8 (SD 15.6) years of age, female (n = 56, 56.6 %), and had a high school education or less (n = 61, 61.6 %). Participants correctly classified a mean 57.5 % (SD 12.8) of symptoms and had mean attitude and belief scores of 12.1 (SD 3.3) and 17.5 (SD 2.9), respectively. There were no significant differences in knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs based on language proficiency. However, there were some statistically significant differences for knowledge and attitude scores based on exposure to ACS symptom information. The ACS Response Index (Spanish Version) also demonstrated favorable internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS: Overall knowledge, attitude, and belief scores were modest in this sample. Higher knowledge and attitude scores were observed for some types of ACS information exposure, supporting the importance of future educational efforts in this population.

A Social Media Intervention for Promoting Oral Health Behaviors in Adolescents: A Non-Randomized Pilot Clinical Trial.

Poor oral hygiene and excessive consumption of soda are among the main drivers of systemic health issues in adolescents in the United States. This non-randomized pilot clinical trial focused on the effects of a health text message system and smartphone-based intervention on adolescent tooth-brushing behavior and dietary choices, with a convenience sample of 94 participants aged 12 to 14 years old. A group of 75 participants agreed to use a tooth-brushing app and received a health text message; the other group of 15 agreed to use the tooth-brushing app, but did not receive a health text message. Saliva specimens were collected directly before and at the end of each experiment; changes in the salivary presence of cariogenic bacteria over the duration of the study were evaluated and compared with the demographics and behavioral variables. Within the text message group, 5% of participants increased the frequency of daily tooth brushing. Within the non-intervention group, 29% of participants increased the frequency of their daily tooth brushing. There were reductions in the total salivary bacteria and total streptococci in both groups (p < 0.001), but no change in the presence of cariogenic Mutans streptococci. Raising adolescents' consciousness of oral health behavior resulted in marginal to moderate improvements to oral hygiene and dietary choices, as well as reductions in total salivary bacteria.