Folker Louise, Jespersen Astrid Pernille, Øzhayat Esben Boeskov
Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, South Campus, University of Copenhagen, Building 12, 2nd Floor, Karen Blixens Plads 8, 2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark; Department of Odontology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Nørre Allé 20, DK-2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark.
Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, South Campus, University of Copenhagen, Building 12, 2nd Floor, Karen Blixens Plads 8, 2300, Copenhagen S, Denmark.
Soc Sci Med. 2025 Jan;365:117500. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117500. Epub 2024 Nov 13.
This study suggests the term tooth shame and explores it as a phenomenon encompassing deep entanglements between emotional experiences, social interactions, and care work practices. Drawing on shame research concerning the body, health, and class, juxtaposed with odontological research on the social implications of oral health issues, it investigates how tooth shame appears in Danish elderly care. In Denmark, oral health is notably impaired among older people depending on professional care, with significant repercussions for general health and social life. The study stems from the Lifelong Oral Health project, which identifies barriers to oral health and examines the potential to improve it in Danish elderly care. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in nursing homes, home care units, and a rehabilitation center in two Danish municipalities. As self-derogative statements and self-limiting behaviors regarding oral health issues stood out as a general finding in interviews with older people, the focus on tooth shame emerged from this fieldwork. The study contributes to recent shame discussions with a social-material understanding of tooth shame, emphasizing that it is more than an individual feature. It is a collectively distributed phenomenon that expands among people and situations, and that interferes with vital caring practices. The study suggests that tooth shame appears through the performance of tooth shame choreographies, highlighting its implications in a socio-material setting. First, it demonstrates that tooth shame can make older people adapt to oral health issues, for example, by avoiding social interactions, dental care, and oral treatments. Second, it identifies tooth shame as a collectively distributed and expanding phenomenon, as it draws, for example, care workers into sensitive shame situations. Third, it explores how tooth shame interferes with daily dental care practices, professional considerations, and ethical dilemmas within elderly care systems.
本研究提出了“牙齿羞耻感”这一术语，并将其作为一种现象进行探讨，该现象涵盖了情感体验、社会互动和护理工作实践之间的深层纠葛。借鉴有关身体、健康和阶层的羞耻感研究，并与口腔健康问题社会影响的牙科学研究并列，本研究调查了牙齿羞耻感在丹麦老年护理中的表现形式。在丹麦，依赖专业护理的老年人的口腔健康明显受损，这对他们的整体健康和社会生活产生了重大影响。该研究源于“终身口腔健康”项目，该项目旨在识别口腔健康的障碍，并研究在丹麦老年护理中改善口腔健康的潜力。它基于对丹麦两个市镇的养老院、家庭护理单位和康复中心的人种志实地调查。在对老年人的访谈中，关于口腔健康问题的自我贬低言论和自我限制行为是一个普遍的发现，因此，基于这项实地调查，研究重点转向了牙齿羞耻感。本研究通过对牙齿羞耻感的社会物质理解，为近期关于羞耻感的讨论做出了贡献，强调牙齿羞耻感不仅仅是个人特征。它是一种集体传播的现象，在人群和情境中扩散，并干扰至关重要的护理实践。该研究表明，牙齿羞耻感通过牙齿羞耻感编排的表现形式呈现出来，突出了其在社会物质环境中的影响。首先，它表明牙齿羞耻感会使老年人适应口腔健康问题，例如，通过避免社交互动、牙科护理和口腔治疗。其次，它将牙齿羞耻感确定为一种集体传播且不断扩散的现象，因为它会将护理人员卷入敏感的羞耻情境中。第三，它探讨了牙齿羞耻感如何干扰老年护理系统中的日常牙科护理实践、专业考量和伦理困境。
