Lay summary
Māori consistently have poorer health outcomes than the New Zealand benchmarks. Oral health is no exception to this, and Māori have repeatedly been reported to have the poorest oral health outcomes of any ethnic group. This project will focus on Māori and other indigenous oral health providers, exploring the environmental landscape of oral health delivery as well as methods that work to increase the number of indigenous professionals in the dental workforce. An environmental scan will review both published and grey literature on this area, which will inform the development of an interview guide; whereby key informants working within the external oral health environment will be interviewed to gain greater insight into the issues surrounding oral health delivery to Māori. The findings from this project will provide a rich knowledge base for future research, including the design and implementation of future interventions to improve oral health outcomes for Māori.