Polishing Your Cultural Lens: A Fresh Perspective for Dental Professionals
Isis Marsh, RDH, MS
Given the diversity of the United States, dental professionals are called to uphold their oath by meeting the challenge of providing equitable, patient-centered care. Although diversity enriches communities, it also highlights differences in health care access that continue to exist across populations. Data on insurance coverage reflect these differences, as some groups remain more likely to experience barriers to coverage, preventive services, and treatment barriers that may be influenced by policies and broader social factors.
These differences in access contribute to oral health outcomes where caries, periodontal disease, and unmet treatment needs are more frequently observed in certain populations. For dental professionals, this reality presents both a challenge and an opportunity. To honor the values of compassion and service embedded in the profession, clinicians must move beyond technical expertise to embrace cultural competence, cultural humility, and effective cross-cultural communication.
By recognizing the social and cultural contexts that shape patients’ experiences, dental professionals can build trust, foster stronger clinician-patient relationships, and support improvements in oral health outcomes. This commitment reflects the professions duty to advance the health and well-being of all patients with compassion, respect, and integrity.
Cultural Competence vs. Cultural Humility
Cultural competence is the ability to understand and respond to patients’ cultural, linguistic, and social needs. It involves awareness of diverse practices, from dietary habits to health beliefs, and applying this knowledge to improve care.
Cultural humility is a lifelong, self-reflective process that emphasizes openness, self-awareness, and recognition of bias. Rather than assuming mastery of another culture, it acknowledges patients as experts in their own lived experiences. Together, competence provides a framework for knowledge, while humility ensures empathy and continuous growth.
Relevance in Dentistry
A clinician’s ability to quickly connect with patients directly impacts trust and treatment outcomes. When patients feel understood, they are more likely to adopt healthier behaviors, comply with recommendations, and return for preventive or treatment visits. Despite competence models, mismatches between provider and patient perspectives continue to contribute to challenges in care. Dental providers must be culturally adaptable, sensitive to nonverbal cues, and proactive in fostering trust.
Patients bring a wide range of perspectives shaped by factors such as race, gender, age, class, education, religion, sexual orientation, and physical ability. These influences can affect how individuals view and access care. Providers should recognize these factors and engage with them when developing treatment plans. By working collaboratively with patients, clinicians can ensure that care is patient-centered and responsive to individual needs.
Conclusion
Cultural competence and humility practices in the oral health care setting has been recognized as an important component of high-quality care, supporting improved knowledge, communication, and confidence among health professionals, as well as greater patient satisfaction.
Want to discover more ways to improve patient care through cultural competence?
REGISTER NOW for our upcoming live CE webinar: Polishing Your Cultural Lens: A Fresh Perspective for Dental Professionals
Presented by: Isis Marsh, RDH, MS
Date: October 23, 2025
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 PM ET
CEUs: 2
References
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Stubbe D. E. (2020). Practicing Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in the Care of Diverse Patients. Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing), 18(1), 49–51. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20190041
Rodriguez R, Pandya AG. Cultural Competence and Humility. Dermatol Clin. 2023 Apr;41(2):279-283. doi: 10.1016/j.det.2022.10.004. Epub 2023 Feb 1. PMID: 36933916.
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Wu, B., Mao, W., Qi, X., & Pei, Y. (2021). Immigration and Oral Health in Older Adults: An Integrative Approach. Journal of dental research, 100(7), 686–692. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022034521990649