By Kate Rauch
Maria Orellana, DDS, PhD, assistant professor in the UCSF School of Dentistry, has long observed that Latino parents are often more resistant to having their children get braces or retainers to straighten teeth than parents of other ethnicities. But beyond simply recognizing this trend, Orellana wants to know why.
“I’m trying to understand what is preventing Latinos from getting the dental and orthodontic care other people are getting. Is it mainly economical or something else?” she says.
It [consultation services] helps me expedite studies so I can complete them and get them published.Maria Orellana, DDS, PhD, assistant professor in the UCSF School of Dentistry
In a recent preliminary study, Orellana confirmed what she already suspected — the importance of acculturation, or the process of becoming “Americanized,” on dental care.
A survey of 63 young Latinos between the ages of 8 and 17, and their parents, revealed that the more acculturated children and adults are, the greater importance they put on dental and orthodontic care.
“Here are kids that come into the clinic and they don’t want to smile,” she says. “It affects their self-confidence.” And perhaps not surprisingly, the more acculturated children were often at odds with their less acculturated parents, Orellana notes.
Read more at UCSF.edu