Einstaklingar á jaðri samfélagsins mynda hópa sem erfitt getur reynst að nálgast og skilgreina. Samhliða því eru félagsleg vandamál gjarnan til staðar hjá þessum einstaklingum. Í vísindalegu tilliti er áskorun að rannsaka munnheilsutengda þætti hjá jaðarsettum samfélagshópum og kallar sú staðreynd á óhefðbundnar nálganir. Rannsóknir á Norðurlöndunum hafa sýnt fram á nokkrar orsakir fyrir lélegri munnheilsu þessara hópa og hindrarnir hvað varðar meðferð einstaklinga, skipulagningu og stefnumótun. Þörf er á sérsniðnunm áætlunum fyrir tannheilsu jaðarhópa. Háskólar þurfa ennfremur að forgangsraða þessu rannsóknarsviði. Í faraldsfræðilegu og einstaklingsbundnu tilliti er munnheilsa þessara hópa mjög slæm og er þörf á bragabót.

Oral health in the margins of the community

Citizens living on the edge of the community form groups which may be difficult to approach and identify. Concurrent social problems are often present at the individual level. From a scientific perspective research on oral health related factors among underserved and socially marginalized groups of citizens, represent methodical challenges which call for alternative approaches. However, from a public health perspective studies from the Nordic countries have identified several causes of poor oral health and barriers to oral care at the individual, the organizational and the policy level. The poor oral health and the lack of sufficient oral care services calls for tailored oral health promotion programs to these groups of vulnerable citizens and underlines and stresses the responsibility of the dental profession in common and the Universities in particular to prioritize this field of research. In the epidemiological as well as in the individual perspective these groups of citizens bear a heavy burden of oral disease - maybe the groups that carries the burden which influence the live of the individual the most.