Fear of Doctors to Lack of Information, Causes of Poor Dental Health in Indonesia

JAKARTA - Dental and oral health problems in Indonesia are still a serious challenge. Low public awareness to maintain dental hygiene, coupled with the lack of easily understandable education, makes many people only check themselves when the condition is severe.

In fact, early treatment is very important to prevent various dental and oral diseases that can affect overall health.

Based on the Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) from the Ministry of Health, about 96% of people have not visited a dentist in the past year. In addition, only 2.8% brush their teeth with the correct technique. This condition is influenced by various factors, ranging from fear of dentists to lack of access to accurate and easy-to-understand information.

To answer this challenge, a number of parties have begun to encourage a more relevant approach to education with the development of time, one of which is through the use of social media.

Training programs such as the TeethTalk Academy for Dentfluencers are present to help dentists, dental students, and dental health activists convey information in a more communicative and close way to the community.

This program was developed as a learning platform that combines clinical expertise with the ability to create digital content. The materials provided include idea development, content production techniques such as lighting and editing, to strategies for building interaction on social media.

"Dentists play an important role in dental health education. In the digital era, interesting delivery is the key to making scientific-based messages easier to understand and reach more people," said Senior Global Brand Director of Oral Care Unilever, Madhurjya Banerjee in a press release, Wednesday, April 8, 2026.

He added that a more interesting communication approach is expected to increase public awareness while reducing anxiety about having teeth checked by a doctor.

In line with this, British dentist, Dr. Milad Shadrooh, assessed that social media has great potential to change people's perceptions of dental care, which has long been considered a scary thing.

"For many people, a visit to the dentist is still scary. With a more interesting, humanistic, and easy-to-understand approach, people's views on dental care can change," he explained.

A more adaptive approach to education is considered important, especially in the midst of changes in people's behavior who now access health information through digital platforms. The presence of credible and easy-to-understand content is the key to building trust and encouraging habits of maintaining dental health.

In the future, various similar initiatives are expected to expand access to dental health education to the community.