A Review on Effect of Culture on Health and Oral Health

‘Culture’ is a difficult concept to explain. Every culture has its own customs, which may have significant influence on health and oral health. Cultural factors in health and disease have engaged the attention of medical scientists and sociologists. There are various cultural factors that act as determinants of health and disease. These include the concepts of aetiology and cure-based cultural beliefs; habits; adverse oral habits, like eating areca nut and pan chewing, which may be inherited as a multi-cultural belief and which might have an adverse effect on the oral health; parental influence; marriage practices; rural-urban influence; social class; urban/rural society; socio-economic status; race/ethnicity; geographic location; religion; familial influence; and gender and cultural taboos, which influence one's culture. All these factors influence the oral health. The present review is an attempt to assesses the various aspects of cultural anthropology and its effect on oral health