Referral Services
Of the US population, 25.9 million people ages 5 and older are “limited English proficient," and many of these people face barriers to receiving medical and dental care. It is the onus of dental professionals to make the community members to overcome their barriers. Communication is essential in health services. Several debates have been ongoing for decades to determine the influence of proficiency of English language in accessing health services.
Language barriers limit the ability of an individual to attain quality oral health services and reduce access the health-related information in media. Limited English proficiency results in miscommunication between provider and dentist which results in unnecessary dental visits and causes a delay in the delivery of dental services.
Several studies found that language barrier complicates the accessibility of oral health services but does not influence diabetic treatment modalities. A study found that English speaking Latino individuals have 57% of utilization rate as compared to 29% utilization rate seen in Spanish speakers. Another study reported Limited English Proficient individuals expressed shame due to difficulty in establishing appropriate communication with a health care provider.
A case-control study conducted among Spanish and English-speaking Latino Individuals to determine the impact of community diabetic programs on their intentions for glycemic control found no significant difference but revealed marked differences in deciphering oral hygiene practices. The Spanish speaker showed an increased number of pockets, increased gingivitis rates and have a high number of tooth caries as compared to English speakers. The language barriers are more common in immigrant Latino population hinder the utilization of dental services thereby promotes oral health disparities in immigrant Latino communities. The Latino’s who speak English at home are likely to have regular dental visits and have dental provider as compared to Spanish or portage speaker.
A random digital survey conducted in South Florida among English speaking Latinos are aware of their benefits of maintaining better oral hygiene and have regular dental visits, reports less oral signs such as reduced tooth pain, reduced severity of gingivitis, decreased frequency of emergency dental visits (Riley et al, 2006).
A study evaluated the relationship between the accessibility rate of oral health services and language barriers among Hispanic individuals. Individuals with low English proficiency are found to have lowered awareness rate of consequences of diabetes (Arch Mainous 2003). Though Several studies reiterated these findings, the impact of limited English proficiency on health behavior is poorly understood.
Our organization reaches out to the community members those who are without dental providers and those who are dental phobias, and dental anxiety disorders to connect them with the dental providers in their neighborhood areas. To minimize the linguistic barriers of the immigrant communities, we gather health information to share with the dental providers which obviously will change their dental experience and hence improved dental utilization rate. Our organization truly believes that the referral service would be a successful tool to reduce the oral health disparities and would be the right path to attain better oral health of our community.