Abstract
IntroductionEurope has been experiencing a flow of refugees and asylum seekers driven by conflicts or poverty. Their oral health is often neglected despite its clear impact on quality of life.ObjectiveTo explore the status of oral health among refugees and asylum seekers groups by examining the available literature and to determine which evidence exists regarding the problems they face in terms of oral health.MethodsThe current paper followed PRISMA guidelines. A scoping review methodology was followed to retrieve 2911 records from five databases and grey literature. Twelve articles met the following inclusion criteria: experimental research concentrated on the oral and dental health of refugees and/or asylum seekers between 1995 and 2020 in English. Analysis was both descriptive and thematic, whilst a critical appraisal was applied using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP).ResultsSeven studies (58,3%) were quantitative, while five studies (41,6%) were qualitative. In general, the quality of most of the studies (83.3%) was good. Limited access to oral health care services was shown with a higher prevalence of oral diseases compared to the native populations of the host countries. Approaches to improve oral health have been implemented in some studies and have shown positive outcomes.ConclusionsOral health care strategies should consider the oral health problems facing refugees in Europe, and oral health promotion campaigns are essential to give adequate guidance on how to access oral health care in the host countries.
Highlights
Europe has been experiencing a flow of refugees and asylum seekers driven by conflicts or poverty
Eleven studies were from Western and Northern European countries, and One study was from the UK: 5 studies were in Germany, 1 in the United Kingdom, 1 in Sweden, and one in Norway, Bosnia, Finland, Italy and Spain (Fig. 3)
Two studies focused on oral health in children refugees [10, 28], four assessed the oral health situation of refugees and the prevalence of caries and other oral diseases and the treatment needs [11, 28,29,30]
Summary
Europe has been experiencing a flow of refugees and asylum seekers driven by conflicts or poverty. Their oral health is often neglected despite its clear impact on quality of life. Oral diseases are considered one of the most predominant diseases worldwide, affecting the population’s quality of life, health complications, as well as many dangerous loads on the economy [1]. Oral diseases affected 3.9 billion people in 2010 with the most prevalent diseases being untreated decays with a global predominance of 35% for all ages [2]. 19.5 million refugees and 1.8 million asylum seekers were existent worldwide by the end of 2014 [6].
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