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