Īmong the principal factors contributing to poor oral health are: ill-equipped or inaccessible dental healthcare in their Country of Origin (COO) lack of dental care in migration transit or refugee camps and poor personal or cultural dental care practice. This suggests that dental care is suggested as a pressing healthcare need of many refugees and asylum seekers.
Another study in Brussels, Belgium, also showed that dental conditions were the second most frequent diagnosis following respiratory tract infections. A study among newly-arrived refugees in Massachusetts indicated that oral diseases were the most common complaint in children and the second most common in adults. Among refugees, there is a high prevalence of major oral diseases such as dental caries, periodontal disease, malocclusion, missing and fractured teeth, orofacial trauma, and orofacial malignancies. Īccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), oral disease burdens are one of the leading health problems that refugees experience. Though data is scarce, it was found that refugees and asylum seekers have a higher prevalence of oral disease and lower oral health status than their counterpart native Germans. Correspondingly, the oral health of refugees and asylum-seekers was poor in comparison to that of the general host country’s population. There is evidence to suggest that the general health of refugees is inferior in comparison to that of the host population. Įven as many refugees were able to escape from threats of persecution many often failed to avoid the risks associated with poor health conditions. By the end of 2018, there were 55,300 Eritrean refugees in Germany and Eritreans were ninth by nationality of all applicants seeking protection in Germany. Eritrea, despite its small population of an estimated 3.5 million in 2018, is ranked ninth as a country of origin of refugees with almost 15% of its population living in the diaspora. By the end of 2018, 10% of the world’s refugees resided in Europe with Germany hosting the largest number. An asylum-seeker, though, is “someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on by the country in which the claim is submitted ”. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defined a refugee as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion ”.
They were either refugee (25.9 million), internally-displaced persons (41.3 million), or asylum-seekers (3.6 million). The world is experiencing a surging number of forcefully displaced persons with 70.8 million in 2019. To date, literature regarding the magnitude of oral health burdens of the widely dispersed Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers is scarce. To address the oral health burdens of ERNRAS, it is advised to consider oral health education, language-specific, inclusive, and culturally and professionally appropriate healthcare services. Individual or demand-side barriers comprised: lack of self-sufficiency issue related to dental care beliefs, trust, and expectation from dentists negligence and lack of adherence to dental treatment follow-up and fear or apprehension of dental treatment. Structural or supply-side barriers to oral healthcare services included: communication hurdles difficulty in identifying and navigating the German health system gaps in transculturally, professionally, and communicationally competent oral health professionals cost of dental treatment entitlement issues (asylum-seekers) and appointment mechanisms. Along with the majority’s concerns regarding psychosocial attributes of poor oral health, some participants are routinely consuming Berbere (a traditional spice-blended pepper) to prevent bad breath. However, they have poor dental care practices, whilst a few have certain misconceptions of the conventional oral hygiene tools. The study found out that most of the participants have a relatively realistic perception and understanding of oral health. The data was recorded, transcribed, and analysed, using thematic analysis. We employed online semi-structured interviews ( n = 15) and focus group discussions ( n = 2). This qualitative study explored the access of Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers (ERNRAS) to oral health care services in Heidelberg, Germany, as well as their perceptions and attitudes towards oral health care. Oral health concerns in Eritrean refugees have been an overlooked subject.