June 2022

Oral health inequities at a global level persist. This is despite marked advancements in technology, service delivery, training, research and population-level initiatives such as water fluoridation. Although the social determinants of health are frequently cited in the framing, analysis and description of oral health inequities, the explicit role of power is usually omitted. Lukes described power as the capacity of actors to make change, as well as to receive and resist change. An analysis of power thus provides a better understanding of how diverse and conflicting interests of multiple actors can lead to differential oral health norms within communities. An analysis of power also demonstrates the intersectional forms of oral inequities experienced among the socially marginalised; it is not rooted in economic deprivation alone.