Dentistry

• The goal of this page is to provide resources about the intersection between racism and dentistry/oral health in order to facilitate anti-racist awareness and work. 
• This page is not considered complete and is continually updated.  
• Sources linked to are either free or freely accessible to the Tufts community.
• Content Advisory: This note is to advise readers that the content throughout this research guide addresses race-based harm and/or violence towards Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. 

Some, most, or all of the terminology used in anti-racism readings (including the word anti-racism itself) may be new to you. These resources help define this terminology.

The articles linked here are just a few to start seeing the negative impacts of racism on oral health, dental education, and BIPOC dentists and interprofessional colleagues.

• See also the "Data and Statistics" page on this Guide. This includes links to resources and how to find further information about oral health among Indigenous US Americans and on tribal reservations.

• See also the "Patient Information" page on this Guide. This includes links to diverse patient handouts.

View image and end-of-text references.

I draw out some limited literature on this page to help get you started. I encourage you to do your own searching in relevant databases to learn more on these topics. Here is some advice to help get you started.

Anti-Racism and Dentistry Searches:

Below is a suggested search string to help get you started on the intersection of antiracism and dentistry/oral health in PubMed. I encourage you to both play around with this suggested search string and create your own. Copy/paste the search string below into New PubMed (use the link above to directly access New PubMed). On May 03, 2021 this search returned 196 results. Be aware it is likely the search will return more results as more articles are published.

Search String:

("racism" OR "racist" OR "antiracism" OR "antiracist" OR "anti-racism" OR "anti-racist" OR "decolonization" OR "decolonize" OR "decolonized" OR "decolonizing" OR "decolonising" OR "decolonise" OR ("racial" AND (discrimination OR inequalities OR inequality))) AND (dental OR dentistry OR "oral health" OR "oral hygiene" OR "Oral Health"[Mesh])

Below is a suggested search string to help get you started on the intersection of antiracism and dentistry/oral health in Scopus. I encourage you to both play around with this suggested search string and create your own. Copy/paste the search string below into Scopus (use the link above to directly access Scopus). On May 03, 2021 this search returned 98 results. Be aware it is likely the search will return more results as more articles are published.

This is a two-line search. Ensure two lines are available to you and that both are searching "Article title, Abstract, Keywords" in the drop-down menu on the left.

Line 1:
racism OR racist OR antiracis* OR anti-racism* OR decoloniz* OR decolonis* OR "racial discrimination" OR "racial inequalit*"

AND

Line 2:

dental OR dentistry OR {oral health} OR {oral hygiene}

I also encourage you to look at what articles have cited an article you are interested in. Instructions on how to do this are in the Quick-Start Guide above.

Below is a suggested search string to help get you started on the intersection of antiracism and dentistry/oral health in ASSIA. I encourage you to both play around with this suggested search string and create your own. Copy/paste the search string below into ASSIA (use the link above to directly access ASSIA). On May 03, 2021 this search returned 340 results. Be aware it is likely the search will return more results as more articles are published.

This is a two-line search. Ensure two lines are available to you and that both are searching "Anywhere" in the drop-down menu on the right.

Line 1:

racism OR racist OR antiracis* OR anti-racism* OR decoloniz* OR decolonis* OR "racial discrimination" OR "racial inequality" OR "racial inequalities"

AND

Line 2:

dental OR dentistry OR "oral health" OR "oral hygiene"

Searches for specific races/ethnicities:

Some librarian groups are working to create and share expert searches for specific races/ethnicities. I share these here as I am made aware of them

Find out more about the Hirsh Health Sciences Library's Anti-Racism Reading Group.