Enhanced Knowledge by Counseling and Utilizing Traditional Medicinal Plants for Dental and Oral Health to Farmer Groups in Karangrejo Village, Gumukmas District, Jember

Dental health education is very important to know because teeth and mouth are vital components of
the human digestive tract, the function of teeth as a tool for chewing food is used as long as possible
in human life so that if there is severe damage resulting in tooth extraction, there are no more
replacement teeth. Therefore efforts to prevent dental caries through dental health education by
dentists need to be disseminated to the community around us so that prevalence of dental disease
in Indonesian society can decrease and not increase. Community service activities are carried out
by a community service team from the University of Jember located in the UNEJ Foster Village in
Karangrejo Village, Gumukmas District, Jember Regency. Karangrejo Village in Gumukmas District
is quite far from the city center of Jember which causes access to Dental and Oral Health services
in that area is still limited. The condition of the Covid-19 pandemic which limited actions other than
emergencies also contributed to the problem of dental caries in the village. Location surveys and
discussions were carried out with village officials, and Karangrejo villagers to see the potential for
traditional plants growing around the village environment and in the backyard houses that can be
used to help maintain dental hygiene and oral health. This service activity aims to increase
knowledge of Karangrejo Villagers to maintain dental health and the use of traditional medicinal
plants that have properties to help maintain dental health. The results of location surveys and
discussions found that the level of knowledge of Karangrejo villagers to maintain dental health is
still not optimal. Increasing the level of knowledge about dental and oral health indirectly increases
citizen awareness about the importance of dental and oral health as well as the existence of
independent efforts that can be made to prevent dental caries.