Community Dental Health

cover art

Cover Date:
June 2016
Print ISSN:
0265 539X
Vol:
33
Issue:
2

The mouth as a site of structural inequalities; the experience of Aboriginal Australians

Objective: To address the mouth as a site of structural inequalities looking through the lens of Aboriginal Australian experience. Research design: This is a critical review of published literature relevant to our objective. Criteria for selection included articles on: the social context of oral and general health inequalities for Aboriginal Australians; Aboriginal perceptions and meanings of the mouth and experiences of oral health care and the role of the current political-economic climate in promoting or compromising oral health for Aboriginal Australians. Results: Evidence suggests oral health is important for Aboriginal Australians yet constrained by challenges beyond their control as
individuals, including accessing dental services. Competing demands on limited budgets often led to oral health dropping off the radar unless there was an emergency. Conclusions: Structural (social, political and economic) factors often inhibited Aboriginal people making optimum health choices to prevent oral disease and access services for treatment. Factors included cost of services, limited education about oral health, intense advertising of sugary drinks and discrimination from service providers. Yet the literature indicates individuals, rather than structural factors, are held responsible and blamed for the poor state of their oral health. The current neoliberal climate focuses on individual responsibility for health and wellbeing often ignoring the social context. To avoid the mouth becoming an ongoing site for structural inequality, critically reviewing oral health policies and practices for whether they promote or compromise Aboriginal Australians’ oral health is a step towards accountability-related oral health outcomes.

Key words: inequalities, structural factors, oral health, health services, Indigenous

doi:10.1922/CDH_3717Durey03

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
161
Page End
163
Authors
A. Durey, D. Bessarab, L. Slack-Smith

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial - Prevention of dental caries through the use of fluoride – the WHO approach
  2. 66
  3. 68

  1. Fluoride and Oral Health
  2. 69
  3. 99

  1. Child oral health in migrant families: A cross-sectional study of caries in 1-4 year old children from migrant backgrounds residing in Melbourne, Australia
  2. 100
  3. 106

  1. Choosing a measure of Health Related Quality of Life
  2. 107
  3. 115

  1. Feasibility, utility and impact of a national dental epidemiological survey of three-year-old children in England 2013
  2. 116
  3. 120

  1. Dental anxiety, concomitant factors and change in prevalence over 50 years
  2. 121
  3. 126

  1. A bi-level intervention to improve oral hygiene of older and disabled adults in low-income housing: results of a pilot study
  2. 127
  3. 132

  1. Association between child caries and maternal health-related behaviours
  2. 133
  3. 137

  1. Caries and costs: an evaluation of a school-based fluoride varnish programme for adolescents in a Swedish region
  2. 138
  3. 144

  1. Examiner reliability in fluorosis scoring: a comparison of photographic and clinical methods
  2. 145
  3. 150

  1. The mouth as a site of structural inequalities; an introduction
  2. 151
  3. 151

  1. The mouth and dis/ability
  2. 152
  3. 155

  1. Inequalities in oral health: the role of sociology
  2. 156
  3. 160

  1. The mouth as a site of structural inequalities; the experience of Aboriginal Australians
  2. 161
  3. 163

  1. Do ‘poor areas’ get the services they deserve? The role of dental services in structural inequalities in oral health
  2. 164
  3. 167

  1. Overcoming structural inequalities in oral health: the role of dental curricula
  2. 168
  3. 172