{"id":3497,"date":"2022-10-20T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T09:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=3497"},"modified":"2022-10-05T17:30:52","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T16:30:52","slug":"bridge-work-the-behavioural-and-social-sciences-in-dentistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2022\/10\/20\/bridge-work-the-behavioural-and-social-sciences-in-dentistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridge Work: The Behavioural and Social Sciences in Dentistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog by Patricia Neville<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Neville,As a social scientist working in oral health research and dental education, I am regularly frustrated about how closed dentistry is to the behavioural and social sciences. Working as a sociologist in oral health research can be a lonely place. I am treated as an \u201cexotic animal\u201d with \u201ccurious\u201d tools and \u201cmagical\u201d epistemology. As a dental educator of sociology of health, I must contend with a hidden curriculum that teaches students to value the biomedical approach and its reductive clinical gaze over sociological insights (Neville et al. 2019). Historically, behavioral and social science research in oral health has been conceptualized as a \u201chand-maiden\u201d to dentistry or as a \u201csubordinate service-mode\u201d project. While such outsider feelings are common for behavioural and social scientists working in medical\/clinical fields (Albert, Paradis, and Kuper 2015), the ghettoization of the social and behavioural sciences within dentistry is not simply an academic concern. Efforts to improve the oral health of the global population will continue to lag further behind if clinical dentistry does not address this epistemic shortcoming.<\/p>\n

A glimmer of hope recently emerged that may help turn around the fortunes of the behavioural and social scientists working in oral health and dental education. On 19 January 2022, the \u201cConsensus Statement on Future Directions for the Behavioral and Social Sciences in Oral Health\u201d was published in the Journal of Dental Research<\/em> (McNeil et al. 2022). This statement was the outcome of a three-day Behavioral and Social Science Oral Health Summit held in 2020. This virtual global conference was the first of its kind to bring together over 400 oral health researchers, stakeholders and behavioural and social scientists working in oral health to discuss the role and place of behavioural and social sciences in oral health (International Association of Dental Research 2022). The resultant consensus statement highlights four key ways in which the behavioral and social sciences contribute to oral health research epistemology. These are:<\/p>\n

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  1. Behavioural and social theories and mechanisms related to oral health<\/li>\n
  2. Use of multiple and novel methodologies in social and behavioral research and practice related to oral health<\/li>\n
  3. Development and testing of behavioral and social interventions to promote oral health<\/li>\n
  4. Dissemination and implementation research for oral health<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While consensus statements are not new to healthcare (Blazeby et al. 2021), this consensus statement breaks new ground for several reasons:<\/p>\n