Browsing by Author "Paajanen, Anna"

Background: The population in many countries is becoming more diverse and heterogenic and the population of people from foreign background is growing in Finland as well. We wanted to find out how public sector dentists in Finland find this phenomenon. The aim of this study was to better understand how the foreign background of a patient affects the dentist’s work. Methods: The research was carried out as a semi-structured interview study. We interviewed 6 dentists from Helsinki municipality public dental care between December 2019 and January 2020. Each interview took approximately an hour. After the interviews were transcribed verbatim, two members of research group read individually the interviews to find emerging themes. Results: The most common problems that arose in the interviews were problems within communication and interpretation. The dentists also noticed different expressions of pain among foreign background patients compared to native Finnish patients. The periodontal diseases and importance of selfcare in treating those were also observed not to be familiar to many foreign background patients. The time a patient had lived in Finland was thought to affect the experienced difficulties and prejudice faced by the interviewed dentists. Conclusion: In this qualitative research we were already able to identify some of the common difficulties the dentists experience while treating patients from foreign background despite the small number of participants.