Oral health is much more essential than healthy teeth. Health cannot be isolated from its social environment. The social and economic factors have as considerable influence on health similar to medical interventions. In ancient times health and illness were treated by magical and religious beliefs instead of medicine. This is because of lack of knowledge in the ancient civilization. Literacy level of people plays a very important role in development of health sector of a country. Proper education makes an individual more realistic and prac­tical. As majority of the Indian population lives in the rural area, traditional Indian philosophies and taboos were found to correlate inversely with preventive dental health behaviour. Thus the purpose of this review was to define the current prevalence of these cultural taboos and myths regarding dentistry prevailing among the Indian population. The intent is that this assessment will be helpful in shaping the future health programs and creating dental awareness