The behavioral and social sciences are central to understanding and addressing dental, oral, and craniofacial health, diseases, and conditions, and are relevant to every discipline in dentistry.
The “Consensus Statement on Future Directions for the Behavioral and Social Sciences in Oral Health,” published in the Journal of Dental Research (JDR), highlights the current state of knowledge in the behavioral and social oral health sciences and identifies future directions for the field.
In 2020, the IADR Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research Scientific Group sponsored the Behavioral and Social Oral Health Sciences Summit, a three-day virtual meeting of over 400 oral health stakeholders, researchers, and clinicians with expertise in the behavioral and social sciences. The first-ever international meeting of its kind, the Summit served as a launch-point for promoting oral health globally by advancing the robust application of behavioral and social sciences, and built consensus among health scientists and clinicians about essential foci and critical next steps.
