CDA Essentials 2018 • Volume 5 • Issue 5

25 Issue 5 | 2018 | I ssues and P eople NunatuKavut includes a cluster of small coastal Inuit communities in southern Labrador. Inuit who live there were concerned about the oral health of their children and youth. They suspected that children were experiencing high rates of dental decay, but because the oral health status of their community hadn’t been studied—as it had for other Inuit communities—they didn’t know how their rates of disease compared to other Canadians, or what they could do to make things better. So they reached out to researchers at Dalhousie University to help them find answers. A collaborative research project involving the communities of NunatuKavut and researchers from Dalhousie and Memorial Universities aimed to identify and address rates of oral disease among children and explore Inuit perspectives about oral health and well-being; how they differ from conventional Western perspectives, and what those differences mean for delivering oral health services to this community. To answer these questions, the researchers travelled along the southern coast of Labrador to talk with Inuit youth and adults who either worked with youth or were familiar with the issues they faced. They asked people in six communities what they knew about oral health, and what challenges could be addressed.