Abid Bossouf

Thesis Proposal

Oral health is now a major public health issue at both the individual and societal levels. It is characterized by its multidimensional nature, as it involves biological, psychological, and social factors.
Because oral health remains strongly correlated with socioeconomic status both within a country and globally, addressing oral health requires a systemic analysis at various organizational levels, from the local to the global.

Oral health is therefore highly complex. Sociologist Edgar Morin developed the theory of complex thought in the late 20th century. In contrast to Cartesian thought, this theory emphasizes the necessary interactions between different fields—such as mind and matter, philosophy and science, body and soul—and thus proposes adopting an interdisciplinary approach to best study all dimensions of the subject matter, which in this case is oral health.

Complex thought underscores the importance of linking the humanities to the biological sciences (Morin, 1980). The subject of research cannot be considered in isolation from its environment by ignoring the history, culture, and society in which the individual lives. Oral health and its study must therefore be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective—that is, studied by taking into account the contextual, cultural, and social dimensions in which it arises, poses problems, becomes entrenched, and transforms.

However, medicine is still too compartmentalized, and each specialty tends to become overly specialized. Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving; every week, more than 20,000 new scientific articles in the field of health are published.

Nevertheless, while scientific research allows us to isolate an object in order to understand it, human phenomena are complex; indeed, “the subject speaks.” Pierre Bourdieu conceptualized the notion of habitus, which he defines as “an immanent law, instilled in each agent through early education.” It therefore refers to an individual’s way of being—their ethos—and their manner of behaving—their hexis.

Thus, a multidisciplinary and intersectoral approach appears to be essential in order to fully understand all the relevant factors specific to the individual, their environment, and the society in which they live.

How does a complex approach to oral health help in developing a public health strategy to prevent, treat, and manage oral diseases?

Edited byNicolas Giraudeau