Engaging with a rural Aboriginal community to identify strategies to improve oral health within their community: a qualitative study.

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders bear a higher burden of oral disease compared to non-Indigenous persons. Rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are further disadvantaged due to service access difficulties. This study, initiated by community concern for oral health identified through its Health Action Group, aimed to explore a rural Aboriginal community's strategies to resolve oral health problems.

Managing oral health care and prevention: The experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in a rural community in Queensland, Australia.

Objective: To understand the experience of rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in engaging with oral health care services and programs in order to support the development of oral health services and prevention programs that better meet their needs.

Design: The study used a qualitative research design, which aims to describe participants' lived experience of engaging with oral health services and prevention programs in a rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 participants.

Factors influencing the perceived importance of oral health within a rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Australia.

Background: Indigenous Australians suffer from higher rates of oral disease and have more untreated dental problems and tooth extractions than the general population. Indigenous Australians also have lower rates of accessing oral health services and are more likely to visit for a problem rather than a check-up. Multiple issues effect health service and prevention programs including: characteristics of health services such as distances to health services; existence of social and cultural barriers; available wealth and social support; and, characteristics of the individual and community including the importance given to the disease.