Beach Dental Care - Behavioral Models of Utilization of Health Services

Beach Dental Care is proud to offer a perfect blend of modern clinical care and warm, home-like office environment that’s perfectly suited for patients from all walks of life. Whether you’re in need of routine checkup and cleaning or high-end sleep apnea therapy, our team will help you feel comfortable throughout the entire treatment process.

Behavioral models of the utilization of health services assume that individuals act as rational agents who first need to become psychologically aware that a problem exists, and then choose to visit a health-care professional for help. However, these models neglect the role of social factors that influence individuals’ willingness to use health services, including social support and the availability of alternative forms of care.

Language barriers also impede patients’ ability to access health-care services. Latinos, for example, may experience difficulty seeking dental services because of poor English skills (a distal/macro factor) and cultural beliefs, values and perceptions that make them less trusting of or open to the idea of receiving medical advice from a health-care professional (an intermediate/community factor). Other communities face insurmountable obstacles to accessing dental care due to socioeconomic factors, such as lack of insurance or limited incomes (a distal/macro factor) or the absence of an ethnic dentist (an intermediate/individual factor). In such cases, individuals often turn to family members and friends for guidance about their symptoms, and this is known as a “lay-referral” system.