Conceptualisations of Sex and Gender in Oral Health Research

Abstract

Sex and gender are widely recognised as determinants of health, influencing general and oral health outcomes. In this conceptual article, we argue that the potential of sex- and gender-based oral health research to deliver transformative insights into oral health inequalities has been limited by 3 key factors: 1) a lack of theoretical understanding of the difference between sex and gender, 2) the continued conflation of sex with gender in research and 3) the hegemony of a biomedical paradigm in oral health research and its depoliticised view of health and its determinants. Drawing on the precedent set by medicine espousing its ‘gender medicine’ movement, this article calls for a similar movement within dentistry and oral health research, acknowledging and calling out decades of gender blindness and gender bias. Such a paradigm shift will contribute to the emergence of ‘gender-conscious’ dentistry. We describe gender-conscious dentistry as a discipline where gender is foregrounded in its theoretical, methodological and empirical work. The article concludes by highlighting ways that oral health research can achieve this goal. Overall, this article is an invitation for further discussion and debate on the role and place of sex and gender in oral health research.