Behavioural Science Part I

Powerpoint Templates
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BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE IN
DENTISTRY
By Dr. Anagha Agrawal
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CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Definitions
• Scope and use of behavioural science in dental
health
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Culture and its effects on oral health
• Myths in dentistry
• References
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INTRODUCTION
• Social environment:
– Influences health of individual and the community
– Includes
• Cultural values
• Customs
• Habits
• Beliefs
• Attitudes
• Morals
• Religion
• Education
• Income
• Occupation
• Standard of living
• Community life
• Social and political organization Page 4
INTRODUCTION
• Social sciences - applied to those disciplines which
are committed to scientific explanation of human
behaviour.
Social
sciences
Political Social Cultural

Economics Sociology
science psychology anthropology
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• The term behavioral sciences encompass all the
disciplines that explore the activities of and
interactions among organisms in the natural world.
• Systematic analysis and investigation of human and
animal behavior through controlled and naturalistic
experimental observations and rigorous formulations.
Behavioural
sciences
Sociology Social psychology Social anthropology

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• Behavioural science -confused with -social sciences.
• Behavioural sciences – investigation of the decision

processes and communication strategies within and
between organisms in a social system.
• This involves fields like psychology, social

neuroscience, genetics etc.
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• In contrast, social sciences- framework to study the
processes of a social system through impacts of social
organization on structural adjustment of the
individual and of groups.
• Include fields like sociology, economics, history,

counselling, public health, anthropology, and political
science.
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DEFINITIONS
• BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE: is the science of the
study of human behaviour at the level of their own self,
other individuals, family and community members,
and the resulting reactions on the health programme.
• SOCIOLOGY: Sociology deals with the study of
human relationships and of human behaviour for a
better understanding of the pattern of human life.
• SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: it is concerned with the
psychology of individuals living in a human society or
groups.
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• SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: is the study of the
physical, social and cultural history of man. The study
of the development and various types of social life is
called social anthropology.
• DENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY : is the study of teeth
as recorded in casts of living mouths or as seen in the
skulls of archaeological and fossil collections.
• BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE IN DENTISTRY: may
be defined as the study to understand or explain the
behaviour of people in relation to oral health.
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SOCIOLOGY
• It is concerned with the effects on the individual of
the ways in which other individuals think and act.
Definitions
1. Perrin: Sociology is the scientific study of human
societies and of human behavior in social settings.
2. Stark: The scientific study of the patterns and

processes of human social relations.
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Society
• When group of people settle down and organize themselves, they form
a society.
• Defined -as an organization of member agents.
• The importance -controls and regulates the behaviour of individual both

by laws and customs.
• In short- vast network of relationships and compulsions that propel

direct and constrains mass individual effort.
• As a result, mortality rate decreased and life expectancy at birth

increased.
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Community
• “The people living in particular place or region and usually
linked by common interests”
Or
• “A group of individuals and families living together in a defined
geographic area, usually comprising a village, town or city”
• According to WHO: A community is a social group determined

by geographical boundaries and/or common values and interests.
• Its members know and interact with each other.
• It functions within a particular social structure and exhibits and

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creates certain norms, values and social institutions.
Social Institutions
• An organized complex pattern of behaviour - a

number of persons participate in order to further
group interests.
• The family, the school, the church, the club, the

hospital, political parties, professional associations,
the panchayats
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Culture
• It is defined as “learned behaviour which has been
socially acquired”.
• Culture is the product of human societies, and man is

largely a product of his cultural environment.
• Culture is transmitted from one generation to other

through learning processes, formal and informal.
• Culture stands for the customs, beliefs, laws, religion

and moral percepts, arts Templates
Powerpoint and other capabilities and
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• The changes in food habits of people - Many
orthodox Brahmins in India today eat meat.
• The widespread use to tobacco all over the world is

because of culture contact.
• The radio, the television, the cinema have been

factors in shaping the culture-behaviour patterns of
people.
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Standard of Living
• The term “standard of living” refers to the usual scale

of our expenditure, the goods we consume and the
services we enjoy.
• Including food, dress, house, amusements and in

short the mode of living.
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• The standard of living in a country depends upon the
level of national income, the total amount of goods
and services a country is able to produce, the size of
the population, the level of education, general price
level and the distribution of national income
• There are vast inequalities in the standards of living

of people in different countries of the world.
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• The extent of differences in the level of living can be
known through the comparison of per captia income
on which the standard of living of a people primarily
depends.
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Social organisation:
• Different groups are needed for the different purposes;
these groups comprise social organization.
• The social groups to which people belong are the family,

the kinship and caste, religion village, town or city and
the state, besides there are certain functional groups such
as the panchayat, the club and various associations.
• Cutting across these groups, there are groups based on

social status.
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A. The family:
• The family is the basic unit in all societies.
B. Religion and caste:

• The caste system in India is an example of a “closed
class”, there is no mobility or shifting from one class
to another, and the members remain throughout life
time wherein they are born.
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• Each caste is governed by certain rules and sanctions
relating to endogamy, food taboos, ritual purity, etc.
• Each caste group within a village is expected to give

certain standardized services to the families of other
caste.
• For example, a carpenter repairs tools, a barber cuts

hair, a potter supplies earthenware vessels.
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C. Temporary social groups:
The crowd: when a group of people come together

temporarily, for a short period, motivated by a common
interest or curiosity, it is known as a crowd.
• The crowd lacks internal organisation and leadership.

When the interest is over, the crowd disperses.
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The mob: the mob is essentially a crowd, but has a
leader who forces the members into action.
• There may be a symbol in the shape of a flag or

slogan.
• The mob is more emotional than a crowd.
• Like the crowd, it is unstable and without internal
organisation.
• When the purpose of the mob is achieved, the group
disperses.
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• This is also a crowd with a leader. Here the members
of the group have to follow the order of the leader
without question, e.g., the tourist group under a
guide.
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D. Permanent spatial groups
• The band: it is the most elementary community of a

few families living together. Here the group has
organised itself and follows a pattern of life. e.g.,
gypsies in India.
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• The village: the village is a small collection of people
permanently settled down in a locality with their
homes and cultural equipments.
• The towns and cities: from a sociological point of

view, a city or town may be defined as a relatively
large, dense and permanent settlement of socially
heterogeneous individuals.
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• The state: the state is an ecological social group
based on territory. It is more established and
formalised. it is heterogeneous in nature. The Indian
union is a large state.
E. Government and political organisation:

• Some form of government is detectable even among
primitive societies.
• Government is an association of which law is the
institutional activity.
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• There is no society which lacks government.
• It is the supreme agent authorised to regulate the

balanced social life in the interests of the public.
• To understand the organisation of medical services in

any country, it is essential to know its social and
administrative organisation.
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The various types of government in different countries
of the modern world are as follow:
1. Democracy: this is government of people, by the

people and for the people. India and USA have this
form of government.
2. Autocracy: the ruler is absolute in his power, as in

Jordan and Ethiopia.
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3 Monarchy: the head of the state is a monarch as
found in UK, and Nepal.
4. Socialistic: the production and wealth are owned and

controlled by the state. Examples are China and
Poland.
5. Oligarchy: the country s ruled by a family group e.g.,

Thailand, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia.
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The Family:
• The family is a primary unit in all societies.
• It is a group of biologically related individuals living

together and eating from a common kitchen
• As a biological unit - share a pool of genes.
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• As a social unit- share a common physical and social
environment.
• As a cultural unit- reflects the culture of the wider

society of which it forms a part and determines the
behaviour and attitudes of its members.
• It is also an epidemiological unit, and a unit for

providing social services as well as comprehensive
medical care.
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To avoid confusion, social scientists have used the
term:
• 1. Family of origin or the family into which one is

born and
• 2. Family of procreation or the family which one sets
up after marriage.
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Types of families:
• Nuclear family
• Joint family
• Third generation family
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1. Nuclear family:
• Universal in all human societies.
• Consists -married couple and their children -

regarded as dependents.
• They tend to occupy the same dwelling space.
• The husband usually plays a dominant role in the

household.
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• Absence- parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and near
relatives places a greater burden on the nuclear family
in terms of responsibilities for child rearing.
• The husband-wife relationship is likely to be more

intimate.
• The term “new families” - applied to those under 10

years duration and consists of parents and children.
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2. Joint family:
• Common in India, Africa, and some Asian countries.
• More common in agriculture areas than in urban

areas.
• The orthodox Hindu family in India is a joint family.
• As a price for education, urbanisation and

industrialisation- losing the joint family system.
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Main characteristics:
• 1. It consists of married couples and their children

who live together in the same household. All the men
are related by blood and the women of the household
are their wives, unmarried girls and widows of the
family kinsmen.
• 2. All the property is held in common. There is a

common family purse to which all the family income
goes and from which all the expenditure are met.
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• 3. All the authority is vested in the senior male
member of the family. He is the most dominant
member and controls the internal and external
affairs of the family.
• The senior female member by virtue of her being the

wife of the male head shares his power so far as the
women of the family are concerned.
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• 4. The familial relations enjoy primacy over marital
relations. Early and arranged marriage is advocated
to ward off any threat from marital relationship.
• The merit of the joint family system is that it is based

on the motto: “union is strength”.
• There is sharing of responsibilities practically in all

matters which give the family a greater economic and
social security.
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3. Three generation family
• Confused with the joint family.
• Common in the west.
• This tends to be a household where there are

representatives of three generations.
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• It occurs- young couples are unable to find separate
housing accommodation and continue to live with
their parents and have their own children.
• Thus, representatives of three generations related to

each other by direct descent live together.
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Functions:
RESIDENCE:
• One of the major social functions of the family is to
provide a clean and decent home to its members.
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• There are two types of residence – patrilocal and
matrilocal.
• In the patrilocal residence, the wife goes to the house

of the husband; in the matrilocal residence, the
husband goes to live in the house of the wife.
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Divison of labour:
• The male had the sole duty to earn a living and

support the family.
• The female had the total responsibility for the day to

day care of children and running of the household.
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Reproduction and bringing up of children:
• The mother takes absolute care of the infant and

children up to a certain age.
• The father provides for education and teaches the

child the social traditions and customs.
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Socialization:
• Bridge between generations and between fathers and

sons.
• It is the transfer point of civilization.
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Economic functions:
• The inheritance of the property and the ownership

and/or control of certain kinds of property like the
farm, shop or dwelling are controlled by the family.
• Eventually the property is handed down to the

children.
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Social care: the family provides social care by
• Giving status in a society to its members, i.e., use of

family names where it occurs.
• Protecting its members from insult, defamation etc.
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• Regulating marital activities of its members.
• Regulating- political , religious and general social

activities
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SCOPE AND USE OF BEHAVIOURAL
SCIENCE IN DENTAL HEALTH
• Identification of positive and negative behaviour of
patients toward dental health advice.
• Understanding the mechanism, causes and results of
specific behaviour patterns in order to promote
healthy dental practices.
• Planning for short term and long term behavioural
changes among patients, which will result in better
preventive, promotive, curative and even
rehabilitative dental care.
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• Use of specific behavioural change methods while
communicating and counselling patients.
• Devising coping techniques in dental health care
practice, where the patient behaviour cannot be
changed due to deep rooted social and cultural beliefs
etc.
• Understanding and managing individual behavioural
patterns of health team members, in order to promote
harmony in work which will lead to the successful
achievement of common goal.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE IN DENTAL
PUBLIC HEALTH
• Social scientists have been called in aid in adapting
new health programs to existing cultural patterns.
• Public health workers face difficulties in program
planning.
• A representative- district health service, attempting to
reduce the incidence of malaria and tuberculosis in
rural Peru by -people to boil their drinking water,
found her efforts frustrated by a long-standing
tradition that only sick people drank boiled water.
• To advertise oneself as sick, not well. Long and
patient education was needed to overcome this
cultural barrier. Powerpoint Templates Page 54
• A story -Dr. John Cassel, an American physician
stationed at the time among the Zulus of South Africa.
• He was called in one day to see an old Zulu man who
was severely ill.
• Dr. Cassel diagnosed the case as one of tuberculosis
accompanied by cavity formation in one lung and with
a poor prognosis.
• He advised the man’s family to come to the clinic for
drugs.
• This they did not do, but called instead a woman witch
doctor, who declared that the man was bewitched by
his only son and the son’s new bride, who both lived
with him in his home
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• The witch doctor advised sending the young couple
away from the home and taking steps to disinherit the
son.
• The old man followed this advice and soon improved
in health, to surprise of Dr. Cassel, who saw him a
month later.
• Dr. Cassel investigated the situation and found that
the son had become a never-do-well, squandering
both his father’s and his older sister’s money, and
insisting by Zulu custom that the sister should have
no status in the house.
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• This situation had lead to tensions, arguments and
eventually blows.
• The witch doctor had released the old man from all
this so that he could recover.
• In retrospect, Dr. Cassel remarked, ‘when I was called
in to diagnose the case, my total diagnosis consisted
of a hole in the lung and I missed all the
psychological and cultural factors.
• The witch doctor, on the other hand, had diagnosed
the whole set-up, and missed only the hole in the
lung. Of the two, I should imagine that her diagnosis
was more complete than mine.
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An example of social science in connection with
dental public health planning:
• Jong, conducting the dental phase of Project Head
Start for the city of Boston in 1967, sought
information about the attitudes and habits of the Head
Start families in order to plan suitable referral-to-care
facilities for children found in the dental- screening
program to have dental needs.
• An interview schedule was designed with the aid of a
psychologist.
• A team of interviewers – eight dental hygienists and
three senior dental students were then given a 3-day
orientation in the use of theTemplates
Powerpoint schedule.
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•
• The interview schedule comprised data under two
main headings: social and demographic measures,
and dental care variable.
• In the former category were questions on residence,
number of children in family, welfare recipient status,
occupation of the head of the house, education status,
annual family income, and race.
• The findings of this survey made it clear that while
half of the respondents reported a dental visit during
the past 12 months, the family approach to dental
care has been of the crisis variety, with little attention
to preventive services.
• The population was by no means homogenous in
status or outlook Powerpoint Templates Page 59
• It appeared that the supply of dentists was not major
factor in utilization of dental services, and that
income, education, and residential stability played
important roles.
• Almost one-half of the families identified dental
clinics as their regular source of family dental care.
• It was found-considerable amount of respondents left
their own community to obtain dental care and these
patterns of travel were recorded.
• For the families that were interviewed, the
interviewer contributed largely to a proper
orientation, accounting for a good showing of
completed dental care cases in the subsequent
months. Powerpoint Templates
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• General findings were also made, for instance, that
because the disadvantaged population of the city
depended heavily on the clinic facilities, it was of the
utmost importance that these clinics offer a full range
of preventive services, including prophylaxis, topical
fluoride treatment, early diagnosis, and frequent
recall.
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Affordability of dental health services
• In order to determine if the community can pay
directly or indirectly for the health care services,
there is a need to measure the socioeconomic status to
which the particular community belongs.
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Socio-economic status scale
• Assessment of socioeconomic status (SES) is an
important aspect in community based studies.
• Evaluation of SES of a family would mean the

categorization of the family in respect of defined
variables such as, education, occupation, economic
status, physical assets, social position etc.
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Several methods or scales have been proposed for
classifying different populations by socioeconomic
status:
• Rahudkar scale 1960
• Udai Parikh scale 1964
• Jalota Scale 1970
• Kulshrestha scale 1972
• Kuppuswamy scale 1976
• Shrivastava scale 1978
• Bharadwaj scale 2001
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• However, social transformation and fast growing
economy have rendered these scales ineffective in
measuring the SES over the years.
• Further, steady inflation and consequent fall in the

value of currency make the economic criteria in the
scale less relevant.
• The most widely accepted scale for urban

populations has been proposed by Kuppuswamy in
India in 1976.
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Socio-economic status scale (urban)
by b. Kuppuswamy (1962)
• Was developed for only those subjects who reside in
urban areas
• This scale contains Manual two information blanks
(one for the person-concerned and second for the
father or guardian) and Score card
• The social stratification is based on three main
variables:
 Education,
 Occupation and
 Income
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Kuppuswamy’s Socioeconomic Status
Scale
A Education Score
1 Profession or Honours 7
2 Graduate or post graduate 6
3 Intermediate or post high school 5
diploma
4 High school certificate 4
5 Middle school certificate 3
6 Primary school certificate 2
7 Illiterate 1
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B OCCUPATION SCORE
1 Profession 10
2 Semi-Profession 6
3 Clerical, Shop-owner, Farmer 5
4 Skilled worker 4
5 Semi-skilled worker 3
6 Unskilled worker 2
7 Unemployed 1
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C Family income per Score Modified for
month(in rs)- original 2007
1962
1 =2000 12 =19575
2 1000-1999 10 9788-19574
3 750-999 6 7323-9787
4 500-749 4 4894-7322
5 300-499 3 2936-4893
6 101-299 2 980-2935
7 =100 1
=979
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Total Score Socioeconomic class
26-29 Upper (I)
16-25 Upper Middle (II)
11-15 Middle Lower middle (III)
5-10 Lower Upper lower (I V)
<5 Lower (V)
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Socio-economic status scale (rural)
by udai pareek and g. Trivedi (1964)
• Attempts to examine the socio.-economic status for
the rural or mixed population only.
• This scale has nine factors which assess the socio-
economic status of the individual:
 Caste;
 Occupation;
 Education;
 Social participation;
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 Land;
 House;
 Farm powers;
 Material possession and
 Family
• This scale does not emphasize the economic aspect
and can only be used for rural subjects.
• The reliability of the scale was found to be very
high(r = 0.93).
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Total score Social class
Above 43 Upper Class (I)
33-42 Upper Middle Class (II)
24-32 Middle Class (III)
13-23 Lower Middle Class (IV)
Below 13 Lower Class (V)
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Accessibility to dental health care services
• Dental health care services are not easily available in
villages.
• Therefore behavioural changes for dental care may be

created only if there are roads and better
communications for the villagers to reach the cities,
and the like.
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• This is called accessibility and it can be improved if
the services are extended in the form of community-
based peripheral dental health services.
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Attitude toward teeth and dental care
The upper middle class:
• Professional business executive group, well
educated, living in preferred areas in well
maintained usually spacious.
• Seek expert advice, follow them religiously
• Interested in preventive dentistry
• Dentist- professional who not only repairs teeth
and stops pain but also prevents decay and loss of
teeth and makes person’s teeth more attractive and
useful.
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The lower middle class:
• Owners of small businesses, minor executives,
teachers, salesmen and white collar workers.
• Highly moralistic group, usually high school
education
• Most compulsive in their dental care attitudes and
practices
• Dentist- authority, not always friendly but who
fixes the teeth.
• Also as the one who gives directions as to how
teeth should be cared for and is useful for
preventive dentistry.
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The upper lower class:
• The group which needs to become the objective of
major educational efforts regarding dental care
and this is primarily because they are the most
accessible to these attempts and offer the best
possibilities of behavioral and attitudinal changes.
• Skilled, semiskilled blue collar workers
• Limited education and live in modest
neighborhoods
• Law abiding, hard working, respectable.
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• Acquire artificial dentures at an early age
• Often happier receiving their care from a clinic
rather than an individual practitioner.
• The lower class:

• Underprivileged or disadvantaged
• Unskilled laborers, people who shift from job to
job, have limited education, live in slum areas,
exhibit no stable pattern of life
• Neglect their teeth
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Trithart 1968 summarized attitudes of underprivileged
people toward health care:
• Castration complex: there is a reluctance to be at the

complete mercy of the health practitioner. This is
marked by reluctance to have a general anesthetic or
sedation for dental or surgical procedures.
• Contraindication of common sense: some dental or
medical procedures such as the continuation of a
drug after acute symptoms have subsided seem to
contradict common sense.
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• Coming in crowds: disadvantaged people do not like
to be outnumbered by the people providing
treatment. For this reason they tend to come in
crowds, with family and friends.
• The last ditch effort: the disadvantaged people often
turn to medical or dental treatment by health
professionals as last resort after all individual efforts
have failed.
• If it hurts, you are a quack: this group has the general
feeling that medical and dental treatment should be
painless and if it hurts, the practitioner does not know
what he is doing.
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• Unclean or dirty feeling: the aseptic cleanliness of a
dental office may convey the feeling of personal
uncleanliness. This feeling can be reinforced by the
dentist washing his hands after treatment.
• The clinic was built there, not here: since many health
facilities such as hospitals and out-patient clinics are
located at inconvenient places for the underprivileged,
many of them tend to think and say, if you really
cared about me you would have built the hospital or
clinic here instead of there.
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• Cold professional attitudes: many disadvantaged
people complain about cold, impersonal objective
attitude and conduct of health professionals. They
value empathy as well as professional competence as
essential characteristic of the practitioner.
• Difference in pain threshold: there may be a wider
variation in the pain threshold of the disadvantaged
than in the population in general. The pain threshold
for those in poor health may also be low.
• Complication of the unknown: fear of the unknown,
a natural human tendency is accentuated with the
underprivileged people, since there are so many
things unknown to them.
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• The pills don’t work: there is a tendency to expect
immediate results from the administration of any
drug.
• Appointments are not important: appointments of
any kind have never been an integral part of the lives
of the underprivileged.
• Teeth lost anyhow: there is a feeling that despite
competent and conscientious personal and
professional care, the ultimate loss of teeth is one of
the natural vicissitudes of life.
• Traditions: impoverished families and
neighborhoods have strong deep seated tradition.
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ANTHROPOLOGY
• Anthropology deals with the scientific study of the
origin and behaviour of man, including the
development of societies and cultures.
• It is holistic in two sense: it is concerned with all
humans at all times, and with all dimensions of
humanity.
• A primary trait that traditionally distinguished
anthropology from other humanistic disciplines is an
emphasis on cross cultural comparisons.
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Components:
• Physical anthropology deals with human physical
growth and various anthropometric parameters.
• Social anthropology deals with social lifestyles,
characteristics of society formations, and components
of society.
• Cultural anthropology deals with various types of
cultures, beliefs, and traditional behaviour.
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Scope of anthropology:
• In terms of physical anthropology, the dimension of
facial structure varies with racial features. This would
be important from an applied orthodontic point of
view.
• With increasing urbanization and its influence on

changing lifestyles, facial appearance has an
increased role to play in communication strategies.
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• Community dentistry must take these factors into
consideration and go beyond mere dental hygiene
education.
• Social interaction and communication, using body

languages such as facial expressions, matter a great
deal. Orthodontics and dental hygiene play an
important role in shaping the facial expressions,
which could convey different ideas and perception
while communicating.
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• Cultural anthropology would be a major challenge
for any form of change in habits and customs,
especially in rural areas and traditional families.
• Decision making in the use of dental hygiene

measures by the community, becomes an important
component of cultural anthropology.
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CULTURE AND ITS EFFECTS ON
ORAL HEALTH
• Since time immemorial the teeth, the mouth and the
face have held a seemingly intrinsic fascination for
mankind.
• They have been a subject of many oral and written

beliefs, superstitions, and traditions.
• Face has been an object of wide range of decorative

and mutilatory practices.
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• Knowledge of these practices is important for the
valuable insights they provide into the cultural beliefs
and traditions- which directly give rise to pathology
of the teeth and orofacial tissues.
• Important for diagnosis and treatment of

complications arising from these acquired forms of
pathology.
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A. Habits
• Teeth reveal a wide variety of activities unrelated to
eating that result in unusual and often distinctive
patterns that are task-specific.
• Some anthropology literature will refer to this as

accidental or artificial dental modifications.
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• Clay-stemmed pipes leave a distinctive imprint on
the teeth. When the teeth are in occlusion, a distinctive
opening appears on one side, or both sides-depending
upon the habits of the smoker.
Opening due to clay pipe stem
Scott and Turner (1997) report such pipe wear in

prehistoric up to an including modern populations
from Melanesia and Siberia to the North Atlantic
region.
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• Another distinctive mark - wearing labrets, the 'cheek
plugs' worn using incisions cut into the cheek or lips.
• The continuous movement of the labret against the

teeth leaves distinctive polished facets of varying size
on the facial surfaces of the teeth.
• Labret usage - Eskimo in the north to Mesoamerican

peoples in the south.
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• Sixteenth century teeth from Europe occasionally
show a notable loss of enamel accompanied by
scratch marks as a result of metal toothpick usage-
which was popular at that time.
• Grooves on the approximal surfaces of molars in

Paleolithic persons are attributed to the sustained use
of bone needle tooth picks used to remove food from
between teeth.
• The bone needles have been found in the same cave

strata as the skeletal specimens.
Page 95
B. Teeth as Tools (Paramasticatory
Behavior)
• The most spectacular report of teeth-as-a-tool usage
is the opening of a 55-gallon drum by an Eskimo with
his teeth. They used their teeth when their fingers
couldn't do the job.
• Teeth have been used for working leather, softening

boots, making grass baskets, the use of bow drills,
and making cordage.
Page 96
• The classic example of 'extramasticatory wear' is the
pattern of occlusal surface grooves seen on the
surfaces of permanent mandibular incisors and canines
of Great Basin Indians of Nevada.
Occlusal grooves from tooth use in preparation of cordage from plant
stems
• The high polish and orientation of the grooves reveal

the use of teeth in the processing of plant fibers for
basketry . Virtually all occlusal surface grooves in
anterior teeth are found in New World foragers.
Page 97
• Occupational modifications are found in the teeth -
dressmakers (thread), shoemakers & carpenters
(nails), butchers (string), glass-blowers and
musicians (mouthpieces), office workers (pens),
jugglers, and trapeze artists.
Page 98
• The chipping of posterior teeth has been documented
in Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians. It seems associated
with the biting of very hard objects.
Page 99
C. Tooth Wear and Function
• The process of tooth wear is well understood. Wear of
teeth reflects their use in life, and the degree of wear
is used by anthropology to estimate the age of an
individual at death.
Page 100
• The severity of wear is highly influenced by the
consistency and texture of food and by how it is
processed.
• In some settings, the degree of wear reflects social

status.
Page 101
• In the Medieval period of Japan, members of the elite
Shogun class had virtually no occlusal wear
suggestive of a soft diet, unlike lower class persons.
• The related dental and skeletal findings are intriguing:
• Those elite individuals who consumed a soft,

processed diet in childhood had narrow faces, reduced
size of the maxillae and mandibles, and more gracile
muscle attachment
Page 102
• In contemporary society, excessive tooth wear is
often found among individuals exposed to mineral,
metal, or vegetable dust.
• Dental chipping of the enamel and tooth fractures are

frequently found in prehistoric populations,
suggesting encounters with hard objects in chewing.
Page 103
• Scratch marks have been seen on the labial surfaces
of anterior teeth of some adult Neandertal specimens.
• They seem to have been caused by incidental contact

with stone blades used to cut meat held between the
anterior upper and lower teeth.
• The direction of the scratch marks is evidence of right

or left handedness.
Page 104
REFERENCES
• Park and Park 20th edition.

• Behavioural sciences in dentistry- Churchill.
• Essentials of preventive and community dentistry-
Soben peter.
• Textbook of preventive and community dentistry-
S.S.Hiremath.
• Dental Public Health- Slack and Burt.
• Principles in public health dentistry-Dunning.
Page 105
• www.google.com
• www.googleimages.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_sciences
• www.uic.edu/.../6_1TheCulturalModificationOfTeeth
.htm
• Jerome s. Handler. Determining African Birth from
Skeletal Remains: A Note on Tooth Mutilation.
Historical Archaeologv, 1994, 28(3):13-19.
• N. Kumar, C. Shekhar, P. Kumar and A.S. Kundu.
Kuppuswamy's Socioeconomic Status Scale-Updating
for 2007. Indian Journal of Pediatrics 2007; 74
(12):1131-1132.
Page 106
THANK YOU……
Page 107

Behavioural Science Part I

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Behavioural Science Part I

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By Dr. Anagha Agrawal

Political Social Cultural

Sociology Social psychology Social anthropology

• Behavioural sciences – investigation of the decision

• This involves fields like psychology, social

• Include fields like sociology, economics, history,

2. Stark: The scientific study of the patterns and

• Defined -as an organization of member agents.

• The importance -controls and regulates the behaviour of individual both

• In short- vast network of relationships and compulsions that propel

• As a result, mortality rate decreased and life expectancy at birth

• According to WHO: A community is a social group determined

• Its members know and interact with each other.

• It functions within a particular social structure and exhibits and

• An organized complex pattern of behaviour - a

• The family, the school, the church, the club, the

• Culture is the product of human societies, and man is

• Culture is transmitted from one generation to other

• Culture stands for the customs, beliefs, laws, religion

• The widespread use to tobacco all over the world is

• The radio, the television, the cinema have been

• The term “standard of living” refers to the usual scale

• Including food, dress, house, amusements and in

• There are vast inequalities in the standards of living

• The social groups to which people belong are the family,

• Cutting across these groups, there are groups based on

B. Religion and caste:

• Each caste group within a village is expected to give

• For example, a carpenter repairs tools, a barber cuts

The crowd: when a group of people come together

• The crowd lacks internal organisation and leadership.

• There may be a symbol in the shape of a flag or

• The band: it is the most elementary community of a

• The towns and cities: from a sociological point of

E. Government and political organisation:

• It is the supreme agent authorised to regulate the

• To understand the organisation of medical services in

1. Democracy: this is government of people, by the

2. Autocracy: the ruler is absolute in his power, as in

4. Socialistic: the production and wealth are owned and

5. Oligarchy: the country s ruled by a family group e.g.,

• It is a group of biologically related individuals living

• As a biological unit - share a pool of genes.

• As a cultural unit- reflects the culture of the wider

• It is also an epidemiological unit, and a unit for

• 1. Family of origin or the family into which one is

• Third generation family

• Consists -married couple and their children -

• They tend to occupy the same dwelling space.

• The husband usually plays a dominant role in the

• The husband-wife relationship is likely to be more

• The term “new families” - applied to those under 10

• More common in agriculture areas than in urban

• The orthodox Hindu family in India is a joint family.

• As a price for education, urbanisation and

• 1. It consists of married couples and their children

• 2. All the property is held in common. There is a

• The senior female member by virtue of her being the

• The merit of the joint family system is that it is based

• There is sharing of responsibilities practically in all

• Confused with the joint family.

• Common in the west.