Anthropology and Dental Health
Dental Health Promotion Presentation
Dinorah Martinez in Las Matas, Dominican Republic, Summer 1997.
A holistic approach distinguishes anthropology from most
all other disciplines. Anthropology's major contribution to the field of health is the
examination of the ways that culture, economic, and political factors affect people's
perceptions of health and illness, rates of disease, and compliance with treatment
(Sargent and Johnson 1996). Dental diseases (eg., caries) is an example of a health issue
subject to cultural socio-political economic influences. Treating it as a medical
condition alone will have limited success. Exploring the interactions between behavior,
environment, and culture is important. In the case of dental disease prevention and dental
health promotion, the anthropologist would not only investigate the direct links (i.e. the
biological aspects) of the disease but would also collect data on the economic status,
social networks, cultural beliefs systems and other community aspects.
I came across oral health unexpectedly and, at first, I even questioned the relevance of
anthropology in dental health. I never expected to work in the dental field and honestly
never gave dental health much importance in light of other more potentially fatal
illnesses (e.g. cancer, heart disease, dengue fever). All of this changed as I soon became
aware of the significance of dental health and how it affected general health and well
being, self esteem and the quality of life. For my Master's thesis I had to do an
internship and so I contacted Dr. Ivis Corbo, the founder of Instruments of Peace, and
explained how anthropology could be incorporated with dental health.
My role at the Instruments of Peace dental clinic was to help design and implement an oral
health promotion program. My research focused on identifying local beliefs and practices
that affect the efficacy of dental health promotion. I used both qualitative and
quantitative methods to gather information for the dental health promotion program. In
addition to participant observation, I conducted 59 ethnographic interviews using a
cultural models questionnaire. The aim of the cultural models methodology is to have as
much interaction as possible with the respondent. This instrument allows the researcher to
elicit a person's understanding of an illness, its cause, how he/she believes it could be
treated as well as his/her concerns.
Extraction of Teeth
Dr. Ivis Corbo, Dinorah Martinez, and Community Volunteer (Claribel Familia), Summer 1997.
The public may think that designing a dental health
promotion program is simple: just tell people to brush their teeth, limit the use of the
baby bottle, eat fewer sweets and go to the dentist at least once a year for a dental
cleaning and check-up. However, educating people about such things becomes difficult when
toothpaste is considered a luxury, transportation is inaccessible, water is a few hours
walk or comes only a few hours a day, people use idiomatic terms to describe a toothache,
and food is a limited resource.
I believe medical anthropology, as well as other social sciences, plays a vital role in
any medical environment. Often, the medical treatments which are provided do not meet the
needs of the community they are serving. How can any form of medical treatment be
effective if those providing the service are unaware of the beliefs, behaviors and needs
of the people they are treating?
Dinorah Martinez, M.A.
Medical Anthropologist
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