Living with oral appliances: consumption, health and oral care practices

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the connection between consumption and health, particularly in relation to consumerism in healthcare services and consumption’s impact on population health. Initially the idea of the ‘healthcare consumer’ was met with extreme scepticism, as it was argued that this idea was a misnomer and that the concept was threatening to fragment healthcare. Yet more recent empirical work into consumption practices and health has shown that the relationship is much more nuanced than previously thought. This article takes the case of daily care for oral devices and seeks to further unpack the relationship between consumption and health. The results are based on analysis of data collected in 2019 from the Philippines and Russia. The analysis focuses on how adjustments are made to the relationships between the body, consciousness and everyday life when living with oral devices (dentures, aligners and mouthguards). It examines the daily practices associated with care for such devices, examining the spaces, materials and practices involved in daily oral care. The findings demonstrate that in Russia and the Philippines several ‘bundles’ of consumption practices exist, reflecting quite different teleoaffective structures for consumption practices. The study also uncovers the ‘distributed agency’ of oral devices examining how they shape daily life.