Future Studies as an Essential Guideline in Health & The Necessity of its Usage in Oral Health: A Scoping Review

Abstract Background and Aim: Improving oral health requires a variety of factors, including sufficient awareness and ability to predict future threads and crises in this sector. The purpose of this study was to investigate the necessity of using future studies in oral health. Material and Methods: This review study was conducted in 2021. In order to access the articles, four databases consisting of “PubMed, Google Scholar, Ovid & Scopus” were sought in the last 10 years. According to the topics, entry and exit criteria, 16 articles were selected and analyzed for the study. Results: The results showed that “future studies” should be used as an important tool in almost all areas of the health system’s functions but this important tool has been significantly neglected in the oral health system. Conclusion: According to the most studies, in order to make appropriate policies for achieving the health improvement, cognition of variables, deficiencies and threats ahead are essential. In this regard, although policy-making has been done with a foresight and futurism approach, but oral health is one of the issues which has been missing.