Ayşegül Doğan

and 1 more

Background: Oral health is thought to be a neglected topic in Turkey. By now, therapeutic services have dominated the provision of oral health care in Turkey while preventative treatments have not received enough funding, nor have these services been supplied consistently. Objective: This study aims to elicit the need for the integration of preventive oral health services into the Turkish public health system by revealing the viewpoints of dentists, citizens, health managers and experts in Turkey. Methods: Snowball sampling method was used and qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 47 individuals. Data were collected between April 2023 and August 2023. Both content analysis and descriptive analysis were used to explore the data. The content analysis was completed by using the MAXQDA 2023 Package program. Results: The codes were gathered under three themes in the context of the study: opinions on the provision of preventive oral and dental health services, opinions about family dentistry, current problems in oral and dental health services in Turkey. Results indicate that there is an urgent need to provide preventive oral health services in a systematic way and that the public is unaware of oral health. Provision of oral health services within primary health care services should be presented through the family dentistry system. Conclusions: For creating a roadmap for the integration of preventive oral health services within Turkish public health system, an organization model has been developed including preventive practices for both society and individuals, using a public health approach .