2018 Community Oral Health Focus Groups In 2018, community focus groups were held in three neighborhoods with high childhood cavities risk in San Francisco: Bayview/Visitacion Valley, Chinatown, and Mission to learn about each community’s perception of oral health and culturally specific barriers to accessing dental care. Common Focus Group Findings Across All 3 Communities
Doctors & Pediatricians are important sources of oral health information
Communities want both mass media and targeted community-based oral health education
Accessible Community Linkages to Dental Services & Information is lacking
Communities desire more culturally and linguistically responsive dental providers
Communities want more Children & Family Friendly dental providers
Communities want dental providers to spend time and build rapport with them
Negative Dental Experiences are passed down inter-generationally
District 3 Chinatown Focus Group
"We live with the elders, they will say something when they see it, ‘he is falling asleep, why are you forcing him to brush teeth’, and say blah blah to me… ‘he is so young and the teeth will be replaced.” -Chinatown Focus Group Participant
Key Findings: •Participants feel that family elders (their parents, their children’s grandparents) view baby teeth as unimportant. This often becomes a point of contention between the different generations of care-takers •Participants shared desire for more ideas (toys, stories, activities) to increase children’s acceptability of dental visits •Feel that schools, community programs, WIC, doctor offices and mass media are good platforms for oral health education •Participants feel that family elders are a very influential factor in their children’s health. They need to be included in intervention and education campaigns Download the 1-page factsheet to learn more.
District 9 Mission Focus Group
“I think we need people to take care of our culture more, more Latinos, more dentists and dentists in places where there are many people from that community, from that culture so that they understand and understand where we come from.” –Mission Focus Group Participant
Key Findings: •Participants feel there is a lack of information about the importance of oral health •Feel there is a lack of sufficient dental offices that have staff of dentists who speak Spanish •Lack of understanding in community about the importance of baby’s teeth •Parents appear to trust their general practitioners more than their dentists •Parents seem to understand that junk food and sugary drinks are bad for teeth health, but may not be acting on their understanding •Parents trust their local non-profits for information and education Download the 1-page factsheet to learn more.
District 10 Bayview/Visitacion Valley Focus Group
“They treat you different because you're on Medi-Cal and it's like, you know, I feel like if you're paying for it out of pocket, then they'll take you more serious. If you show Medi-Cal, it's like, "Oh, well, you can wait." And put you on a back burner.” -Bayview/Visitacion Valley Focus Group Participant
Key Findings: •Participants would like more culturally appropriate dental options available to them •Participants have received inconsistent information from different dentists, making it hard to establish a sense of trust •Participants feel under informed about dental health resources and information •Participants have a general understanding of oral health even though access to information remains relatively low •Participants’ negative experiences with dentists shape their perception about the dental landscape Download the 1-page factsheet to learn more.
San Francisco Dental Transformation Initiative Local Dental Pilot Project 30 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 210 San Francisco, CA 94102