Stories
Narrative Dentistry Database
The NAME Project’s Narrative Dentistry Database includes narrative excerpts from group and individual interviews, as well as poems, books, essays, news articles, and more.
How to search the database:
- Enter search terms in the box below OR
- Browse entries by clicking on the categories. Select multiple categories to narrow your search.
Ways to use the database:
For Patients or Caregivers
- to make decisions around their own oral health care choices
- to learn about others’ experiences around oral health care
For Pre-Health Undergraduate Programs/Dental Schools
- to incorporate into courses/programs
- to help train new oral health care providers
For Clinicians
- to reflect on and develop ways to offer equitable care
For Librarians
- To find resources for story times, book discussion groups or narrative dentistry activities
Have a story or resource to share? Email us at thenameproject@umd.edu to add it to our database.
Thanks for your interest in our Narrative Dentistry Database. Please help us better measure the impact, usage, and importance of this database by completing this short survey.
Novel by Valeria Luiselli; translated by Christina MacSweeney. (2015). Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press. “This is the story of my teeth, and my treatise on collectibles and the variable value of objects.” (p. 17) So begins, Luiselli’s experimental “novel-essay” of the story of Gustavo Sánchez Sánchez, otherwise known as Highway. As reflected in this […]
Children’s graphic novel by Kate Reed Petty and illustrated by Andrea Bell. First Second: New York, 2021. It all started with a disconcerting visit to the dentist. Even though 12-year-old Ruth Keller had been taking good care of her teeth, she had a cavity and a few other concerning areas that could also go […]
Newspaper article by Anne Kim with photos by Ricky Carioti. (June 7, 2018). The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/07/feature/rural-america-has-too-few-dentists-but-also-too-few-jobs-to-create-paying-patients/
Newspaper article by Ken Alltucker. (July 14, 2024). USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/07/14/dental-access-is-an-american-crisis-how-the-vulnerable-are-shut-out/74125834007/
Autobiography by Maya Angelou. New York: Random House, 1969. (2015 Random House Trade Paperback Edition) Angelou’s memoir deftly recounts her early life starting with her time in a small town in Arkansas where she and her older brother were raised by their paternal grandmother, a brief period living with her mother in St. Louis, […]
Newspaper article by Eric Boehm. (August 20, 2016). Wall Street Journal. http://www.wsj.com/articles/you-dont-need-to-be-a-dentist-to-fill-a-cavity-1471645312?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Remembering Deamonte Driver: An Oral Health Story
The following is a story that has been amplified by journalists and represents the kinds of resources found in our database.
In February 2007, twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver, a Maryland resident, died after complaining of a toothache. A simple $80 extraction for his tooth abscess was out of reach for his mother, Alyce Driver. Although Ms. Driver had Medicaid, which covered Deamonte, she searched, but was unable to find a provider who would accept her insurance plan. The bacteria in Deamonte’s tooth spread to his brain, and he passed away. According to the American Dental Association Health Policy Institute, in 2020 only 43% of all dentists in the U.S. accepted Medicaid or CHIP (child dental services).
To learn more about Deamonte Driver’s story, check out the book Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America by Mary Otto.
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