Conclusions

This chapter reaches conclusions by drawing together the findings of the individual chapters of the book. The work is considered in six themes of person-centred care, dentine hypersensitivity, DHEQ, the meaning of dentine hypersensitivity and the need for multidisciplinarity research.The centrality of the Person in oral healthcare and research complements biomedicine. Person-centredness is increasingly manifest in health policy and practice and brings therapeutic benefits. The lay voice is more audible in litigation and patient-activism. Research of people's experience of health, disease and care has never been more legitimate. The views of lay people are evident in the design and conduct of research and demonstrably increase study quality.Despite 10% of the population having DH, there are persistent challenges in its diagnosis. These difficulties arise through a combination of its complexity as a diagnosis of exclusion, and the historical failure of dentistry to legitimize DH as a problem. Indeed, the language used about DH places it as a non-problem problem.Both DHEQ and DHEQ-15 already meet almost all of the criteria for a high quality measure of HQoL. DHEQ has proved valuable in research of psychological aspects of chronic illness and DHEQ-15 shows promise in the clinical care of people with DH.The research problems we face bear little relation to our current disciplinary boundaries. In order to solve those problems we need to harness the complementary insights and skills of all relevant disciplines.