Barriers, Facilitators, Scope, And Feasibility of Integrating Oral Health into School Health Programs: A Qualitative Study ‎in Bengaluru, India

This qualitative research study explored the barriers and facilitators, scope, and feasibility of integrating oral ‎health into school health programs in Bengaluru, India. Findings indicate that barriers such as resource ‎constraints, curriculum gaps, awareness and engagement deficits, environmental, structural, geographic ‎, and socioeconomic barriers, poor resources, inadequate curriculum, and limited awareness among key ‎stakeholders contribute to the significant hurdles in incorporating oral health into such programs. On the other ‎hand, facilitators emerged, such as administrative commitment, community collaboration, school children-centric engagement, support from strong administrators, coordination with the community, and active ‎involvement of school children, all of which can increase the feasibility of such initiatives. It further emphasizes the ‎role of innovative teaching methods and comprehensive health curricula in fostering sustainable oral health ‎practices. The study provided recommendations to design effective oral health programs, which can be adapted ‎for use in other urban contexts to promote lifelong health benefits and reduce future healthcare costs‎.