April 17, 2026 - News
In 2020, Marie Nordström, Dentist and Lecturer, PhD candidate at the Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, received an Eklund Foundation grant to study why some young adults manage to stay caries-free despite socio-economic challenges. Five years later, she reflects on the key findings, what surprised her, and how the research is moving forward.
Marie’s interest in public health grew after volunteering in India, Nepal, and Cambodia, where she worked in areas with little or no access to dental care. These experiences inspired her to focus on prevention and health promotion at population level rather than individual treatment. Dentistry became her profession somewhat by chance, but her experiences shaped her conviction that oral health is strongly influenced by factors beyond the individual.
What was the main question you set out to answer with the support from the Eklund Foundation?
We wanted to understand why some young adults remain healthy despite not having the most favourable circumstances. Instead of focusing only on risk, we wanted to highlight resilience and health promoting factors to see what we could learn from those who succeed. Young adulthood is a crucial stage as lifelong habits are formed and individuals in Sweden leave the free dental care system, which made this group especially important to study.
Which factors proved decisive for young people to remain caries-free?
The parents’ role was central. In our Swedish interview study, participants described dental care positively but not as decisive for their daily health behaviours. Instead, parental support and encouragement, healthy routines, and positive attitudes provided the foundation. An interesting question for future research is how some parents in vulnerable contexts succeed to maintain their children’s oral health.
How did the young people describe their own path to good oral health habits?
- Childhood: Parents provided support, tools and encouragement for healthy routines.
- Teenage years: They tested boundaries with sweets and fast food but realised the consequences such as less energy for sports and returned to more stable habits. Negative examples such as seeing how neglect affected relatives’ oral health also became strong motivators.
- Young adulthood: They have resources such as self-regulation and motivation to take individual responsibility over their own health. In South Africa, many were proud of traditional home-cooked food even when fast food was popular.
What role did the family play compared with dental care?
The family was far more decisive than dental care in determining why these young adults remained healthy. This suggests that preventive strategies should go beyond the clinic and focus on empowering families and building on their strengths.
How was the Eklund Foundation grant decisive for your work?
It was crucial. The funding enabled us to keep important team members and carry out the studies exactly as planned. Without the funding from Eklund Foundation we would have faced long delays, scaled down the scope, or omitted parts such as the international data collection and the broader national study. So I really want to express my sincere appreciation for the support and opportunity from the Eklund Foundation.
You are now leading a case-control project. What do you hope it will add beyond the first study?
We are combining national register data with surveys. The register data spans from birth to age 20 and covers socio-economic factors such as income, need for financial assistance, and mobility. The aim is to study the health-promoting factors we identified earlier in a much larger population. Preliminary results highlight three factors: self-esteem, oral health literacy, and a sense of control over one’s own oral health. However, these were protective only among individuals born in Sweden or those who immigrated during the ages of 0–5 years.
Since receiving the grant, is there a particular story or insight that has stayed with you personally?
Many participants left a strong impression. Most had experienced poverty, yet their parents often managed to conceal these hardships by maintaining a stable everyday life. One engaged father, working night shifts, still reviewed his daughter’s homework during the night and left comments for her in the morning. Another young woman described how she, her sister, and their mother were so close that they felt like “three sisters”. One participant said: “Today the dental hygienist told me I had such nice teeth. I was shocked by the compliment. I don’t usually hear that” That kind of positive reinforcement can be powerful. In South Africa we also saw participants become health ambassadors for their children, showing how good habits can spread across generations.
Thank you for the interview, Marie. We look forward to following the progress of your case-control project and future research.