What have teeth taught us about culture? Practice, patienthood and ethics in the history of dentistry and public health.
Teeth cut across cultures. They transgress cultural boundaries but also define social boundaries. They provide information about what goes into the mouth, and what the mouth is appropriately used for. Scrutiny of teeth identified a new biomedical space to analyze pain, and created a new culture of medicine for such practices. This paper uses the evolution of dentistry since the 18th century to look at how our social and scientific understanding of teeth has shaped cultural attitudes about pain, politics, beauty and prophylaxis. It then raises questions about how these attitudes in turn create ethical contexts for the practice of dentistry around the world.
Dolan
Brian
B
Social Medicine and Medical Humanities, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
D003469:Culture; D004990:Ethics, Dental / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D006665:History of Dentistry; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D010361:Patients / Q000266:history*; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history*