Racial inequities in access to dental services
an integrative review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/2178-1990.2024.48929Keywords:
universal access to health care services, dental health services, racial groups, black or african americanAbstract
Aim: To analyze the available scientific literature on racial inequities in access to dental services for the Black population.
Materials and Methods: It is an integrative literature review. An online search was conducted between April and May 2023, in the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Medline- Pubmed) and the Virtual Health Library (BVS) databases. The selected search terms in English were “Health services accessibility,” “Dental health services,” “race,” and “blacks.” Original studies that addressed access or use of dental services and race/color as an exposure variable, published between 2003 and May 2023, in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, were included. Literature reviews, editorials, and short communications were excluded from the study.
Results: Initially, 138 eligible articles were identified: 94 in the PUBMED database, 43 in the BVS, and 1 manually inserted. After removing duplicate articles and selecting by reading titles, abstracts, and finally full texts, 12 articles were included in the integrative review. The analysis of the studies allowed categorizing inequities in access to dental services by the black population into 3 perspectives: barriers to dental services, service quality, and racial bias in dental treatment.
Conclusion: Based on the analyzed studies, it was observed that socioeconomic, geographical, cultural, and behavioral factors, combined with structural racism, contribute to the limited access of the Black population to equitable services. It is concluded that the factors associated with racial inequities in access to dental services for this population are rooted in the structural dimension of racial hierarchy in society.
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