Affiliations 

  • 1 Dental Public Health Unit, School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Rashid Latif Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 3 Department of Oral Pathology, Rashid Latif Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 4 Paediatric Dentistry Unit, School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Rashid Latif Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 6 Lahore Grammar School, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 7 Beaconhouse School System, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 8 Department of Biostatistics, School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Int J Adolesc Med Health, 2023 Jun 01;35(3):283-290.
PMID: 37145020 DOI: 10.1515/ijamh-2023-0032

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Most research has focused on determining how popularity and peer pressure impact behaviours, rather than identifying a key feature such as dental aesthetics and studying its impacts in relation to popularity and peer pressure.

METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted on a sample of 527 children from four schools located in Lahore, Pakistan. A 14-point questionnaire was developed, using existing measures of peer pressure, and popularity. The selected questions were modified to investigate the issues of dental aesthetics and integrated into the WHO oral health questionnaire for children.

RESULTS: More than 50 % of the participants indicated popularity issues regarding dental aesthetics. 63.5 % of the responses indicated an influence of relatives and friends, whereas 38 % responses reported of harassment and bullying at schools. Regression analysis shows that the females were 1.99 times more likely to get comments from relative or friends about their teeth and 2.17 times more likely to be bullied or harassed at school due to their teeth when compared to the males. Fathers with a higher education brought about higher popularity and peer pressure issues. Mothers with a higher education were less likely to cause popularity and peer pressure issues than mothers with a lower education. Popularity and peer pressure were both significantly related to higher dental visitation.

CONCLUSIONS: Popularity and peer pressure have a direct link to dental aesthetics in an individual and are impacted by gender, family relatives and parental influences. The area of popularity and peer pressure related to dental aesthetics can be targeted in health education programs to empower children to adopt better oral health behaviours.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.