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Basic Oral Health Needs: A Public Priority
Author(s) -
Ozar David T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/j.0022-0337.2006.70.11.tb04191.x
Subject(s) - special needs , oral health , fundamental human needs , task (project management) , health care , oral health care , public relations , psychology , medicine , nursing , political science , social psychology , family medicine , law , psychiatry , management , economics
Is there a way to support a special ethical status for unmet oral health needs within our pluralistic, liberty‐loving American society? Some people in American society, perhaps many people, believe that some kinds of human needs have special ethical importance. But very few people outside the oral health professions have ever considered that unmet oral health needs might belong to this category. This article will examine why some kinds of needs are thought to have special ethical importance and propose that certain categories of oral health care are needs that fit this description. Without thinking these issues through, we who argue for improved access to oral health care will remain unable to provide an adequate answer to a very legitimate question, namely: improved access to what? When this task has been completed, the article will consider some of the implications of such a view for our society.