Social Science and Dentistry

cover art

Cover Date:
June 2014
Print ISSN:
2040-4263
Vol:
3
Issue:
1

Editorial

In a previous Editorial in Social Science and Dentistry we raised the concern that research exploring the social determinants of oral health, and specifically the nature of social inequalities in health, lacked a consideration of the wider societal and political context in which health and specifically oral health exists. In this edition of the journal Sasha Scambler expands upon this idea through a discussion of the ‘causes of the causes’ of social inequalities. This framework provides a unified theory of the various social determinants that have been identified. It demonstrates the importance of good theory in research - allowing us to infer a more general understanding from the empirical observations that have been collated, as well as demonstrating the complexity necessary to any understanding of health. Research in the social and behavioural sciences faces a number of methodological challenges including the complex and multifaceted nature of the concepts to be measured. Four papers in this edition of the journal explore this difficulty in relation to interventions based under the term ‘Motivational Interviewing’. These papers are summaries of work presented at the IADR conference in Seattle in March 2013. While Motivational Interviewing has received some attention as an intervention for a range of oral health related disease which have a strong behavioural element (such as early childhood caries) the elements which make up the approach have remained unclear, and consequently the active elements of the intervention are unknown. Finally Yusuf and colleagues discuss the barriers to the implementation of evidence based preventive practices in dental settings, echoing the issues raised by Bonnetti in a previous issue of the journal. We are pleased to be able to bring to you, through the pages of Social Science and Dentistry these discussions of difficult and challenging problems in social science policy, practice and research. We hope that through raising the debate we challenge readers to continue progress towards our understanding of the importance of the social and behavioural sciences in oral health.

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
1
Page End
1
Authors
Tim Newton, Sasha Scambler

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial
  2. 1
  3. 1

  1. The use of Motivational Interviewing in oral health interventions; overview
  2. 2
  3. 4

  1. Assessing fidelity in Motivational Interviewing interventions; an overview
  2. 5
  3. 9

  1. Testing fidelity in Motivational Interviewing oral health interventions: an example
  2. 10
  3. 13

  1. Challenges in testing fidelity in Motivational Interviewing oral health interventions
  2. 14
  3. 16

  1. An ethical dilemma: our current understanding of prevention in primary dental care. A qualitative study
  2. 17
  3. 26

  1. Beyond social determinants: a neo-Marxist approach to understanding the causes of the social determinants of inequalities in oral health
  2. 27
  3. 33