Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at The Faculty of Dentistry
By Rachel Boutet
The Faculty of Dentistry recently released its statement and recommendations to address Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) challenges. The statement and recommendations were put together by the Faculty’s EDI Committee, led by professor Jim Lai, vice-dean education.
“We have worked really hard on forming these recommendations, but we recognize this is just the starting point,” says Lai. “We recognize there are challenges and barriers confronting the underrepresented groups such as Black and Indigenous populations. Our next steps are to work with members of our community and EDI experts to ensure we are properly addressing these important issues at our Faculty.”
Some of the recommendations include: expanding training about harassment, racism, unconscious bias, cultural competency, racial microaggression and diversity trainings for faculty, staff, students; exploring the feasibility of a diversity officer; improving accessibility for support for diverse students; developing curriculum content that embeds the principles of EDI; creating a mentor program for faculty and staff; and expanding community based dental education to address oral health inequities.
Lai will be working with the Faculty’s new dean, who will start their term in July 2022, to incorporate EDI into the Faculty’s next strategic plan.
“I’m looking forward to moving ahead with these recommendations,” says Lai. “I believe the impact of strengthening EDI at our Faculty will be powerful for staff, faculty, students and patients.”
Professor Carlos Quiñonez, director of the graduate specialty program in Dental Public Health, says Canada can unfortunately experience injustice and bias within its oral health care system. He believes the Faculty can do much, but that it has work to do to improve justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenization within and outside its walls.
“The students drive a lot of the initiatives in these areas in the Faculty,” he says. “They are extremely interested in justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenization – over the years, I’m seeing a lot more openness to having important conversations around these issues. I’m pleased to see the Faculty leadership engage in some institutional next steps.”
Associate professor Herenia Lawrence says there is often a lack of experiential understanding of cultural safety among many dentists and hygienists with Indigenous populations.
“Indigenous Peoples in Canada are disproportionately affected by oral disease, and this has a lot to do with the social determinants of health,” says Lawrence. “Cultural safety recognizes the colonizing context of healthcare, including inherent power imbalances, unconscious biases, miscommunication and systemic racism. It involves the clinicians’ self-reflection about their potential biases towards members of other ethnic groups, such as Indigenous Peoples, refugees, new immigrants and members of low-income families.”
Lawrence, who does a lot of research and work with Indigenous populations and oral healthcare, adds that steps can be taken to level the playing field and to achieve greater equity in oral healthcare. Foundational steps would be to mandate cultural safety and respectful practices across every aspect of the dental profession, which could easily be addressed by introducing required courses on equity training at the colleges and universities educating these professionals. These types of suggestions are what the Faculty’s EDI recommendations will look to put forward.
“We also have structural issues with visual representation in the field of dentistry,” she says. “The diversity aspect is so important – how are you going to address cultural safety if you don’t understand the culture and speak the language? We need to improve our efforts to increase our education and population diversity. Having an Indigenous hygienist or dentist that is from the community and understands patients can help eliminate miscommunication.”
Associate professor Anuradha Prakki has been working closely with The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) on its climate survey of U.S. and Canadian dental schools/allied dental education programs, in order to help create a more humanistic environment.
“EDI is essential for all of our wellbeing and sense of belongingness,” she says. “It’s important to know people care about you and it doesn’t matter how you look or where you come from or what your background is. When we address cultural differences, we are also promoting patient-centred care. Instead of specific procedures, you have to really look at the patient as a whole – they aren’t only a tooth.”
Prakki adds that understanding patients’ cultural differences and preferences is important for improving communication and delivering high quality treatment. She says in an academic environment, the sense of belongingness, reduces stress and increases collaboration.
“In dentistry, we need to add the psychological and cultural elements to comprehensively treat a patient. I read a recent article that talked about microaggressions occurring without people even knowing them, and that they bare a lot of similarities to tooth fractures: you can’t always see them but if they happen often, whether you know you’re suffering from them or not, it’s too late and something breaks.”
The Faculty will continue to work on its EDI recommendations and share updates as initiatives roll out.
Photo: Faculty of Dentistry Building (Jeff Comber)