Time To Decolonize Global Oral Health
The patterns of global oral health inequalities seem to have some ties with colonialism and its core concepts such as such as Eurocentrism, white supremacy, white saviorism, and racism. To promote global oral health decolonization, it is important to navigate the colonial hierarchies that shape populations鈥� structural determinants of oral health. This study aims to map the global oral health literature on colonial impacts and patterns shaping global oral health.
Methodology: We adopted a scoping review approach and using a systematic search strategy, searched the literature in CINAHL, EMBASE (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid), and Scopus databases. The search was done on the available evidence from 1990s onward and was limited to English papers. Three authors we responsible for screening the results and categorizing the data.
Results: The search resulted in 1351 articles, mostly editorials, commentaries, perspectives, historical biographies and case studies, but also a few reviews and quantitative and qualitative studies. We initially categorized the data into three groups: pre-colonial era, during colonization, and post-colonial era. The first group includes evidence on oral health practices among Indigenous Peoples of currently settler-colonial countries, namely Canada and the US. The second group includes evidence on the negative impact of colonialism on the oral health of Indigenous Peoples during colonization, but also how colonial concepts shaped dentistry as a profession. Finally, the third group comprises evidence on colonial patterns that continue to shape global oral health practices and how they are perpetuating oral health inequalities across the globe.
Discussion: There is a scarcity of literature on both colonialism impacts and decolonization efforts in the global oral health field. Moreover, the oral health impacts of colonialism vary in settler colonial countries, former colonies, and countries that were never colonized, but share the same core concepts: white supremacy, white saviorism, racism, and Eurocentrism. So far, authors have usually been focused on the context of their own institution, country, or discipline, namely oral health practice, dental education, cosmetic dentistry, etc. What seems to be missing is a decolonization framework for guiding oral health research in areas impacted by colonization. We thus call for decolonization of global oral health and suggest developing frameworks and guidelines that could inform this endeavor.