About Face

Project Description

The purpose of this project is to explore people’s experiences of dental reconstruction, an aspect of dental research which has, to date, received very little attention.

We are interested to understand how dental reconstruction (using contemporary dental technologies such as dental implants) impacts upon a person’s sense of self, given that the mouth is one of our primary sites of communication and emotion and is, in contemporary contexts at least, a critical measure of our physical and emotional well-being.

We will use a narrative interview approach to explore patients’ perspectives and an online survey to capture the ways in which dentists understand and facilitate both the clinical intervention/s and the interpersonal aspects of enabling a person to have a ‘new smile’.
We anticipate this project will add a new dimension to the sociology of dentistry, whilst also providing a forum for respondents to articulate and explore their own experiences.