Causes of dental caries from the perspectives of adolescents: A qualitative study

  Objective: Various factors affect dental caries and impact the patterns of dental care. A few studies have been conducted to identify these factors from the perspectives of students. This study aimed to explore factors influencing dental caries from students’ perspectives.   Methods: A qualitative design using content analysis approach was conducted to collect the perspectives of 18 Iranian students who were studying in 8 guidance schools. They were chosen through purposive sampling. Semi- structured private interviews and focus groups were held for data gathering. The tape-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. In order to support the validity and rigor of the data, different trustworthiness criteria such as acceptability, confirm ability and transferability were considered.   Results: During data analysis, four main categories were developed: “difficult conditions of care”, “disability in caring", "uncontrollability of dental caries” and “intangible sense of the factors causing dental caries”. The participants more emphasized their own experiences about having insufficient dental-oral care, not paying attention to oral health, dental fear and the lack of both knowledge and competency regarding this issue. Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed factors influencing dental caries from students’ perspectives and emphasized the roles of individual, parent, dentist and community in this respect. The findings of this study can be considered to be a valuable basis to design oral health interventions. However, more studies are required to improve our understanding of dental fear and denote barriers and social beliefs pertinent to oral health in different groups of students.