‘I didn't want to pass that on to my child, being afraid to go to the dentist': making sense of oral health through narratives of connectedness over the life course

Abstract

While previous sociological research on oral health has identified the relevance of personal relationships, there is more scope to analyse the mouth through a lens of connectedness. Recent qualitative interviews with 43 older people (65+) in England and Scotland found that participants constructed relational narratives to make sense of their oral health practices. By drawing on ideas of family practices, family display and personal life, we illustrate how the mouth can be understood relationally. Participants presented their own embodied experiences as connected to the actions of their parents. Narratives also reflected how, as parents and grandparents themselves, participants tried to shape the experiences of others. In this way, oral health practices were conceptualised as being about family. This can be seen in self‐narratives that demonstrated how participants located themselves as embedded in webs of ongoing relationships. We highlight the importance of narrated practices of thinking and feeling, whereby participants imagined doing oral health, and indeed family, in different ways. We thereby demonstrate how oral health practices are constituted through family connectedness and at the same time how these practices contribute to the constitution of family. Policy should therefore pay attention to family relations when promoting improvements in oral health practices.

Qualitative research in dental traumatology—A narrative review

“…To assess the opinions and experiences of transitional care pathways for young people with TDI Semi-structured interviews Thematic analysis Five themes related to the transitional care experience-patient-clinicians communication, impact of dental trauma, feelings of uncertainty, patient personal development and transitional care planning. Clear communication and involvement of young people in decision-making was identified as a vital factor to facilitate a successful transition of care form paediatric to adult services Hoglund 13 Lingard 14 Kettle 15 Hazevah and Hovey 16…”

‘I've got lots of gaps, but I want to hang on to the ones that I have’: the ageing body, oral health and stories of the mouth

“…The so-called ‘heavy metal generation’, born between the 1930s and the 1960s, has experienced high levels of decay, which was treated by fillings and other restorations (Steele, 2009). Participants who had ‘loads’ of fillings focused on how they had managed to maintain their teeth over the lifecourse, often in contrast to parents or a generalised previous generation (Kettle et al , in press).…”

“…Making sense of the mouth in older age involves narrating various experiences. Here, the focus is on maintaining, losing and replacing teeth but elsewhere stories of relationships with dentists over the lifecourse have been reported (Gibson et al , in press), and the concept has been used in explaining self-narratives of family connectedness through family practices and family display (Kettle et al , in press). It is these various narratives, which can be both mundane and empowering, that constitute ‘mouth talk’.…”