Dental pain as social injustice: a Rawlsian perspective

ABSTRACT

Dental pain reduces a person’s quality of life and constrains the ability to perform routine day-to-day activities, yet its distribution in society is inequitable and significantly shaped by the social determinants of health. This paper explores this social phenomenon of dental pain using John Rawls’ conception of justice as fairness. Several key concepts in Rawls’ framework are examined, including the implications for: a person’s right to fair equality of opportunity; a person’s sense of self-respect; and, the dental profession’s social contract. We conclude that the current distribution of dental pain in Canada and the United States breaks with the principles set out in Rawls’ conception of a just society.

KEYWORDS:

• Dental pain
• Rawls
• injustice

Ethical Statement

Our study is a theoretical and philosophical exploration of dental pain as a social phenomenon. According to Article 2.2 of the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) regarding ethical conduct for research involving human participants, our research project does not require ethics clearance provided by a Research Ethics Board (REB) as no human participants were included in its design or conception.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.