Some considerations on the Latin American oral health literacy.

Use of the Explicit Health Guarantee of Oral Health Care for Pregnant Women at a Family Health Center, Concepción, Chile, 2014–2015

“…Since a similar scenario is present internationally, where most pregnant women do not request dental care, many studies have tried to identify the possible causes of this behavior. [15][16][17][18][19] As reported in Malaysia and Mexico, the main reasons why pregnant women do not request dental care are long waiting times in the clinics, lack of immediate dental care and economic factors. 15,16 However, although these problems would be resolved by GES, there is an underutilization of GES.…”

“…11 Other possible causes of this underutilization could be the ignorance of the harmlessness of dental treatment during pregnancy, low oral health literacy, ignorance of the effect of oral health in pregnancy, and dental anxiety. [16][17][18][19] However, as Cantarutti et al mention, international literature does not necessarily apply to Chilean reality, due to cultural differences and the characteristics of its health system. 20 We suggest performing prospective national studies with a larger sample size, in different health centers and with the incorporation of other variables, consid-ering both quantitative and qualitative approaches, in order to recognize the barriers that are responsible for this pattern.…”