When it comes to health care in Australia, the mouth is too often considered separate to the rest of the body. Medicare doesn’t cover a trip to the dentist in the same way it covers other types of health care.

But for many Indigenous people, health is viewed holistically, where body, mind and emotions, family and kinship, community, culture, Country and spirituality are intertwined.

The mouth has also long-been seen as a key part of wellbeing, including being central to participating in traditional cultural practices such as men’s business, initiation, weaving and fishing.

In our recent research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, we asked Indigenous people what they thought about oral health.

We showed how it remains a central aspect in Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing.

This needs to be reflected in how we design and roll out services to promote Indigenous oral and wider health.

Oral health is much wider than having healthy teeth and gums. The World Health Organization acknowledges it relates to being able to comfortably eat, speak, breathe, smile and participate in the wider community.

But in Australia, there’s an oral health gap. Indigenous people have a higher prevalence of untreated tooth decay, tooth loss, and toothache than non-Indigenous people.

These inequities highlight the impacts of colonisation, ongoing system-wide discrimination, and a lack of access to culturally safe, affordable dental care.

This oral health gap sits within a significant, broader health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Indigenous people have an eight to nine-year lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous people. Their burden of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and coronary heart disease is higher.

So our research aimed........

© The Conversation