Dental care is excluded from Canada’s universal healthcare system, with services provided based on the ability to pay. Our dental-care system is leading large segments of the population to neglect care, resulting in poor oral health and all of its consequences. This book examines the history of dentistry in Canada, demonstrating how private business interests have prevailed over public health. Current trends in the industry, such as corporate ownership and a focus on cosmetic dentistry, continue this history. But change is possible. By examining alternative approaches to the current dental-care system, this book is a call to action to make a healthier future possible.

Dr. Brandon Doucet is a dentist practising in Nova Scotia, with interests in surgery and public health, and is the founder of the Coalition for Dentalcare.

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“Dr. Doucet’s book is an incisive summary of dental care in Canada. Through well-researched and genuinely shocking statistics, Dr. Doucet exposes the vulnerable underbelly of Canadian health care and provides a rare look behind the curtain of Canada’s growing dental corporation industry. Dr. Doucet skillfully describes the lack of access to dental care in relation to a broader picture of inequity, colonialism, ableism, and racism. This book presents a stark, critical, and necessary examination of dental care in Canada; it should be essential reading for policy-makers and anyone in the health care field. I strongly endorse this book and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to rapidly learn about the past, present, and future of dental care in Canada. Dr. Doucet equips us with the ability to be on the right side of history. The reader cannot help but conclude that the status quo for dental care in Canada is completely indefensible.”

Dr Melanie Bechard (MD, MPH, FRCPC) Chair, Canadian Doctors for Medicare

“Brandon Doucet is the Tommy Douglas of dentists. His extraordinary knowledge of dentistry is matched only by his care and compassion for patients. In this new book, he not only explains why dental care is essential to your overall health, but he pulls back the curtain on a highly privatized system of Corporate Dentistry that has created significant inequalities in access to care. His inspiring solution is to establish Universal Dentalcare in Canada, based upon our cherished public Medicare. Brandon Doucet has doggedly and persuasively pursued this vision for his profession, and along with his Coalition for Dentalcare, has become a leading figure in the political campaign to establish Canada’s first national public dental care system.”

Steven Staples, National Director of Policy and Advocacy of the Canadian Health Coalition