title: A qualitative study of the meaning of oral health and self-care for 40 Dunedin residents living on lower incomes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This project extends studies of oral health cultures for lower income families by identifying the participants' meaning of oral health self-care, barriers to its attainment, and suggestions for its improvement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty open-ended interviews were conducted with Dunedin residents purposively selected from a variety of ages, backgrounds and ethnicities. Transcribed interviews were analysed thematically.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five key themes emerged: (1) oral health understandings for self and wider family groups; (2) the complexity of understanding cost in relation to oral self-care; (3) oral self-care tools and daily oral health routines; (4) relationships with oral health workers and the meaning of good and bad care provision; and (5) the State's involvement in oral health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants valued good oral health and were knowledgeable about it, but cost was the primary barrier to care.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huakau
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Darrou
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sadler
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Danse
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Broad
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Broughton
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003729:Dental Care / Q000592:standards; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation; D011203:Poverty; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012575:Schools, Dental; D012648:Self Care / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation; D013218:State Dentistry