Oral Health Literacy

Oral health is essential to general health and well-being at every stage of life. A healthy mouth enables not only nutrition of the physical body, but also enhances social interaction and promotes self-esteem and feelings of well-being. The process of acquiring oral health information, appraising its concepts and applying oral health prevention and treatment plans appropriately requires new skill development called oral health literacy (OHL). Oral health literacy is an interplay between culture and society, the health system, education system, language and oral health outcomes indicating that it may be a new determinant of oral health and should be considered more intensively in oral health research. To maintain oral health and manage disease when it occurs, one must be able to understand, interpret, and act on health information, whether it is communicated verbally or in written form. This dissertation enlightens the History, importance of health and oral health literacy to maintain a healthy life and also its factors, limitations and various assessing tools for measurement in India and around the world which will be helpful for all the researchers in the surveying field.