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Culture and Dental Health among African Immigrant School-Age Children

Cecilia S. Obeng, Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University
cobeng@indiana.edu

Using Fadiman's (1998) work on the cultural basis of health this study demonstrates that a sizeable number of African immigrant school-age children are denied dental health due to a combination of cultural perceptions on dental health, parental ignorance on dental health, and to their parents' perception of medical practices in the United States in general, and dental health practice in particular. Specifically, the paper demonstrates that a considerable number of African immigrant school-age children do not get professional dental care and that this denial of dental care emanates from cultural practices such as individuals and families taking responsibility of their own dental needs instead of relying of 'so-called' dental professionals for such dental care as teeth cleaning, fear of infestation at dental health clinics, ignorance about professional dentistry, and distrust of the overall medical system and medical personnel. Thus, the above-mentioned factors lead families into avoiding dental clinics and consequently denying their school-age children the much needed dental health care. The paper recommends the education of families about the need to seek professional assistance on dental health and the strengthening of the cultural base of medicine and dentistry.

African Immigrants Families and the American Educational System

This research examines the experiences of African immigrant families in the United States Educational institutions and the different strategies used by these families to cope with the system. The paper uses both qualitative (van Maanen's, 1988 impressionism) and Labov and Herzog's (1968) quantitative methods. The paper demonstrates that African immigrants face considerable challenges relating to adaptation into the school system and in the acquisition of the necessary professional competence needed to gain assess to high paying jobs (Aonghas, 2002). The paper concludes that cultural differences and being 'foreign' (Frazier, 2005) put the immigrants at risk and contribute to adaptation and proper assimilation problems.