Nursing Oral Health Essay 2022

Running Head: NURSING
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ORAL HEALTH
Essay
Student
8/28/2019

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Oral health denotes the overall wellbeing of an individual. For oral hygiene, dental care is
essential. However, lack of oral care can result in dental cavities and gums related infections.
Heart diseases, oral cancer, and diabetes are some terminal illnesses, which can occur due to lack
of oral care (Kisley, 2016, p. 277). The prevalence of this infection can be observed in the
Aboriginal community of Australia. Through the essay, brief information about the oral health
problem and its development in the Aboriginal community will be provided. Moreover, the
comparison of this community will be conducted to Non-Aboriginal Torres and Strait Islander
Australia to identify and analyse the burden of this issue, how colonization has played role in the
development of the issue, various social determinants and what is a kind of barriers observed by
medical practitioners in dealing with the issue.
According to the definition provided by World Health Organization, “oral health is a
condition where the individual is free from the chronic illness of mouth or any kind of dental
infection which restrain the ability to bite, smile, speak and other psychological capabilities.
However, when the individuals do not maintain oral health, it develops into an infection.
Oral infection or dental illness is a prolonged non-transferable disorder, which causes
unbearable pain into the mouth, affects the facial movements as well and even causes death. In
2016 Global Burden of the study was conducted in which it was identified that the oral infection
has been widespread and affected about 50% of the world’s population (3.58 billion people) in
which it was observed that dental cavities are the most prevalent condition in the society (World
Health Organization , 2018). One of the major reasons for its development is the lack of oral
sanitation and usage of Fluoride mineral, which is present in toothpaste and mouth-rinses to
protect, teethes from decay. In addition to this, it prevents oral infection. As per the research
conducted by WHO in 2016, about 2.4 billion people suffered from cavities. Besides this, about

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486 million children were infected from the decay of deciduous teeth (Health People
Government , 2019). As per the statistics presented by Global Oral Health Data Bank in 2018,
the presence of dental carries differs from 49% to 83% in different countries. The major impacts
of dental issues can be observed in under-developed countries, wherewith the emergence of
urbanization, transformation living conditions and inadequate quality of health service has
increased the prevalence of oral disorders. Besides this oral issues can be occurred due to the
excessive consumption of tobacco, liquor and lack of nutrition. Ulcers, bleeding gums, plaque
which gets deposit on the teeth, bad smell, tooth sensitivity are symptoms upon which immediate
action must be taken to avoid the infection. On the daily biases, teeth come in contact of various
bacteria and fungus, which can harm the oral health in the end ( Butten, Johnson, Hall, Toombs,
King, & O’Grady, 2019).
Therefore, it can be said that taking the care of teeth from any kind disorder must be a
duty and a commitment for a lifetime.
Oral infection is a liability on Aboriginal and Torres and Strait Islander Australians in
comparison to non-aboriginal Torres and Strait Islander Australia, as oral illness is mostly found
in Indigenous Australian, which are known as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens of
Australia than the non-Indigenous people of Australia.

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Figure 1
Source: (South Australia’s Oral Health Plan , 2019)
Due to lack of oral health services and facilities, oral diseases has life-threatening issue
among the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, which are regarded as an Australia ‘s
first people (Health Performance Report , 2017).
Figure 2
Source: (Health Performance Report , 2017)