Table 1.

Focus group findings related to generational differences in oral health

Sub-theme	Representative quotes
Braces	These kids wear braces now. In my day, you didn’t wear braces. My son wore braces. Both my grandsons wear braces. I don’t know if this is the new thing. I even see adults with them.
Home remedies	…Our grandparents, when you were sick, they would go to plants and make you teas…Then when you finally went to the dentist it was to justify that the tooth was no longer viable…If a tooth loosened up, they would use a string, tighten it around the tooth and pull…That’s not the way it is today, they’ve been able to improve that but that way of thinking has stayed in…you are coming out of a place where they just took out a tooth when they could have just corrected the problem. I know that my grandfather, when I was young, I was at school and one day a tooth bothered me, and then my grandfather said: open your mouth. He put in a string and pulled out the tooth…There were people who grabbed pliers and if the tooth was loose, they would just pull it…
Parental prioritization of oral health: then	But people didn’t worry about it because I did not go to the dentist my mother never made the effort, not, not even (to) brush my teeth or anything like that, no. …Our parents did not concern themselves with these things…the majority of us are different with our children and grandchildren. Kids now go get their teeth cleaned every six months. Before that was not the case. It was bad—there was no guides around that issue…In other words. Things were done only when they were necessary but it was not customary to go every year, every six months, to the dentist.
Parental prioritization of oral health: now	…I suppose that the new generation will not have the problems we have had. Because our generation, at for someone like me who has the teeth of an eighty-year old. And from when I was a kid, I was never taken to a dentist. I went as an adult and it hurt. But not now, look for example at my grandchildren. My daughter, since they were born here—for her the dentist is the most important…those kids are not afraid of checking their mouths or anything because they are used to go from when they are born, from the moment they come out, they start getting that stuff checked…our mothers were our dentists: they would pull out our teeth with a string… …I have a daughter who is 22. 23. And she pays a lot of attention to, “Mami, you should go to the dentist.” “Mami, you have to,” to her sister, who is younger. “We have to take her…” She pays a lot of attention to that…Because, to be honest, I don’t say too much to her. To be honest…She talks more with me. She is always paying attention. Paying attention to everything that has to do with oral hygiene.
Importance of oral health over time	…We have children walking around at sixteen years old that they got no teeth in their mouth, apparently something is wrong with this age generation…I think is diet…Everything they eat has preservative in it they don’t eat natural, they don’t eat fresh…A lot of things that we eat have so many different chemicals, you know and things like that…My mother and my father have perfect teeth. I was the one with the cavities… I have noticed that with the time that is passing by, for me in the past people worried more about their teeth…There are so many more illnesses that people concentrate more on those and forget about their teeth, because that is not so important…because of diabetes I lost some teeth. But when I was younger, I did not think too much about my own teeth. I only began to do this when I got sick, that I realized that I was losing my teeth, then I made an effort that I said, this will be my priority. Teeth, first.
School-based dental care over time	Now, I went to a school where we had a dental clinic…They don’t have that anymore. They don’t have a lot of stuff anymore that they had in schools. We need more oral education…when most of us here were school-age, you knew about the dentist…You knew about the dentist…You know today? Number one: they don’t have a dentist in school…That’s non-existent. We had that…We had that…If not and you came from a decent family, a family that could afford it, you went to the dentist.