Introduction

Last year, 572,509 international students studied at U.S. universities.¹  The dental health of these students is as diverse as the countries from which they come.  This paper discusses global variations in dental health, the known incidence and causative factors of dental disease among international students, and barriers to receiving dental care that international students face while in the U.S.

At U.S. institutions of higher education, international students comprise 4.6% of the total enrollment, 2.7% of undergraduate students, and 13.3% of graduate students.²  The author’s university currently hosts international students from 59 countries.³  The top ten countries of origin of international students in the United States are, in decreasing order:  India, China, Republic of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, and Thailand.²

In the U.S. more than half of postsecondary international students are from developing and newly industrializing countries.⁴  Compared to the U.S. these countries are poorer and have less well-developed health care systems, including dentistry.⁵  Consequently, students from such nations are expected to exhibit poorer dental health than students from more developed nations.

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Citation Number: Vol. 6, No. 4, Page 125