Spontaneous recall as an indicator of the impact of dental complaints

A hypothesis was developed that the impact or importance of oral health problems may be reflected in a person's ability to remember these problems occurring in a given period spontaneously. That means that the recollection should occur on a nonspecific stimulant, i.e. a general question regarding recall of health problems. This hypothesis was first tested on existing data. A representative sample (n = 1622) of the Dutch population was asked to list all the health problems they had experienced the preceding year. Only 13 persons mentioned an oral health problem. From more specific questions on dental matters it appeared that about 15% of the sample had experienced oral health problems in this period. One hundred and forty-six respondents indeed had received dental care because of acute pain. These data indicate that the impact of oral health problems on a person's daily life is small. Otherwise the oral health problem would have been mentioned spontaneously more often. Three possible explanations for this phenomenon are discussed.